Indian Tea Association CEO quits

KOLKATA: In an unprecedented development, the secretary general of Indian Tea Association (ITA), D Chakrabarti, has put in his papers more than a year before his scheduled retirement.
Chakrabarti was slated to retire on March 31, 2005.
When contacted the chairman of ITA, C.K. Dhanuka, confirmed the resignation of Chakrabarti and informed that Manojit Das Gupta would be the next secretary general of ITA.It is for the first time in ITA’s history that its CEO had to seek a premature retirement.
The grapevine has it that Chakrabarti stepped down following “differences of opinion with Dhanuka� on functional matters. When asked Dhanuka, however, categorically denied any such differences. “There is no truth in it. There had been no differences between him and myself�. When contacted Chakrabarti, however, refused to make any comment over his
resignation.
Industry sources told TNN that there had been a sharp difference of opinion between Chakrabarti and Dhanuka over the former’s decision to issue letters to defaulting members of the association who had not been paying their annual subscription fees. The accumulated dues have reportedly reached a staggering level of Rs 2 crore. “But this was just one issue. There had been other issues where the ITA chairman and the secretary general did not see eye-to-eye,� sources claimed.
Sources disclosed that Chakrabarti had issued letters to the defaulting members, asking them to clear the dues, without informing the matter to Dhanuka. Asked to comment, the ITA chairman, however, denied it. “There was nothing of the sort,� he asserted. On being asked to comment about the defaulting members of ITA, he said “this is entirely an internal matter of the association�.
Sources said that there was pressure from those members who had been paying their subscriptions regularly on ITA to ask the defaulting members to cough up their respective dues. Among the defaulters were major industrial houses.
Meanwhile, the managing committee of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), which was supposed to meet on January 24 to discuss the recommendations of the tea industry on restructuring of loans, has postponed the meeting on January 31. Dhanuka was hopeful that IBA would adhere to the recommendations of the tea industry which were disucssed at length at a recently held meeting between the representatives of the tea industry, the bankers and IBA.