Snigdha Karjatkar

Mumbai
July 23rd, 2007

South Gujarat IT Association (SITA) has declared Ketan Patel as its newly elected president. The annual general meeting of the association took place during the second week of July. Chetan Desai has been voted as the new VP of SITA.

In the past few weeks, SITA had been shrouded by controversies regarding selection of its next President. Members were divided over who should be the next President. While some members wanted to follow the traditional route of electing the President, others felt the need to departure from the traditional style of election to make the process more democratic. Members had also put a question mark on the eligibility of the membership of Bharat Randheri, the outgoing President of the association. A month later, members have finally agreed on the appointment of the new President.

"Every association has its own set of differences. We too had our share of differences but the issues have been sorted out and resolved. We are now focusing on the welfare of the members and making SITA a more successful organization," said Kamal Aggarwal, Spokesperson, SITA.

There are six members in the new committee while three members have been freshly inducted in the forum. Clearing the confusion Agarwal said, "There is no more confusion. Ketan Patel has been selected as the new President and has been voted unanimously. Even the past presidents have voted for him, so this clearly indicates that there is no unrest in the association, about his selection, among members."

Regarding the serious allegation on Randheri, Agarwal plainly said, "The rules of the constitution still stand true. There was some 'confusion' about validity of his membership in the organization. But those confusions and issues related to Randheri's membership have been amicably resolved and he will continue be a member of SITA."

Speaking about the plans for the association, Patel said, "We would like to focus more on member's welfare and provide a platform for members where they can share their grievances related to services. Also we wish to strengthen the communication between partners regarding issues like fraud parties. With someone raising the alarm bell regarding a fraud case and passing the word, it will be much easier to trace culprits."

Talking about the plans for this year, Patel said, "We plan to have SOFT EXPO sometime soon. The expo will give resellers who deal in software and educational domain an exclusive crowd and space to market their products. The vertical is already undergoing a tough time and most expo focus on hardware. So we have decided to hold a special event for resellers in this space."

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