After 13 years, Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry to amend its constitution

AHMEDABAD: After more than a decade, the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has resolved to amend its constitution. The GCCI executive committee approved the proposed amendments and an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) will be called on May 12, where it will propose amending the constitution.
For the first time, the immediate past president (IPP) will play an active role in the absence of the president and senior vice-president.
According to sources, the GCCI executive committee approved proposed amendments on Saturday. An executive committee member said, "There will be several amendments. For the first time, the IPP will have an active role in the absence of the president and senior vice-president. This amendment was done to ensure continuity in policy matters. Also, there is an effort to bring large corporate entities to GCCI by amending the rule for the senior vice-president. The proposed amendment says a corporate member with more than five years of experience as a promoter-director of a company whose turnover is more than Rs 1,000 crore can contest for the senior vice-president's post."
According to sources, another proposal is to extend the president's tenure to two years from one. However, the current president, Pathik Patwari, refused to extend his tenure saying there are many members eligible for the president's post and one should not remain president for more than a year.
GCCI has also decided to expand its base by enrolling more members. There will be a 'nominal member' category under which small traders can also become GCCI members by paying nominal fees.
"GCCI currently has around 4,000 members who have voting rights and another 3,000 full-time members without voting rights. It aims to increase its regular membership to 15,000 and nominal membership to 1 lakh in a year. There will be reciprocal members also, who will be members from other state associations of various industries and from other state's chambers to ensure proper representation on central government issues," said an office-bearer on condition of anonymity.
GCCI also proposes to increase the number of invitee members to 10 from five, with three past presidents in this category.
It has also decided to reduce the election duration by half to ensure that members focus on resolving trade and industry issues rather than spending two months on the election.
GCCI had got a new constitution in 2010 when it was mired in a controversy pertaining to bogus signatures.