Heat is on impending Fostta polls to be held after 8 yrs

Surat: Election for office bearers of Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (Fostta) has not been held for past eight years and was being managed by in-charge officials till now.
However, following demands from various textile trading groups, the process to hold elections has been started but disputes have developed over formula to hold the election. Fostta is an unregistered representing body of around 70,000 textile traders from around 200 textile markets in the city — from Ring Road to Saroli. In the past, elected leaders from each textile market, president and secretary, were eligible to vote to elect Fostta’s executive body. This year, a new formula has been introduced.
“Since the number of markets have increased and has spread outside Ring Road, a new formula has been introduced by dividing markets in five zones. Each zone will elect their directors and they will, in turn, elect the Fostta leaders,” said president Manoj Agarwal. He further claimed that he along with his committee members offered resignation and will continue to serve on the posts till polls are over.
A committee of five members has been formed to plan and execute the election process transparently.
Meanwhile, a group of textile traders is opposing the new formula of zone-wise elections. “This will divide the association itself. It will harm the sole purpose of the federation and create differences within since groups from different areas may not unite on key issues,” said Kailash Hakim, a textile trader and representative of Raghukul Market.
On Thursday, a group of textile traders along with Hakim sat on dharna outside the Fostta office in JJ Market and applied a lock to the Fostta office to protest. “The move to harm the image of Fostta is unfortunate. The election has already been announced and a committee is working on it. We have invited letters from markets to suggest the election formula but this attempt to create pressure is not in favour of the business,” said secretary Champalal Bothra.
“For eight years, there was no election and Fostta could not perform its duties. Now, when the elections are announced, the leaders are trying to put pressure on the committee. Hence, we held a protest on Thursday,” said Sanwar Prasad Budhia, former Fostta president.