Ego clashes end Amritsar association

Amritsar: In the absence of a leader and owing to ego clashes between the executive body members of Amritsar Computer Traders Association, which stands dissolved since a year now, dealers in Amritsar have nobody to turn to with their issues and no platform on which they can raise their concerns.

The elections were scheduled to be held in December last, however it was not carried out as per the plan owing to lack of interest on the part of the association members.

Apparently, there were a number of reasons behind the dissolution of Amritsar Computer Traders Association. In the first place there were increasing instances of conflict between the executive members, following which Jagmohan Kapoor, Proprietor, High Performance Computers resigned from his post of President.

Sharing his views on the reasons behind dissolution, Kapoor mentioned, “There is no unity in the thought process of the office bearers in the region. This led to a number of differences in decision making, hence I decided that it was best to submit my resignation and let others run the committee.”

Kapoor further added that there were instances when his orders were not followed by the members in the region and dealers was functioning according to their whims and fancies. “There have been differences owing to pricing issues, and dealers in the region have been indulging in practices whereby they did not maintain uniform pricing, leading to price differences in the region. This aside, all the members did not take active part in the association and only a handful of them were willing to make monetary contributions which was not sufficient to run the association. This is destroying the market in the region which is not good for the trade altogether. Everyone is playing the blame game and no one is willing to raise their concerns and resolve the matter,” lamented Kapoor.

Echoing similar sentiments, Manish Kandhari, Secretary, Amritsar Computer Traders Association, stated, “We need the association to raise our concerns but due to ego clashes between few members we have been unable to run the association. Post Kapoor's resignation we have not been able to unite. The elections for the association were supposed to be held in December. However, we have now postponed the elections to March but for that to happen the executive members will have to sit together and hold discussions.”

Incidently, prior to the formation of Amritsar Computer Traders Association, there was another association that was actively raising issues and opinions of the dealer community in the region. The former association was called Association of Computer Entrepreneurs (ACE). Talking to The DQ Week, Upkar Singh Sethi, former President, ACE, mentioned, “Till the time ACE was functioning, we were successful in raising the concerns of the dealers in the region.”

It may be noted that a total of 62 members were actively enrolled with ACE. Apart from handling intra dealer issues, ACE had also resolved issues related to Microsoft. During the time the company had raided eight dealers in the region ACE had not only ensured that Microsoft withdrew its charges against the dealers but had also increased awareness about installing genuine software amongst dealers. Besides, ACE had also helped to organize the trade by holding seminars for partners in the region.

Rajnish Sharma of Kwality Enterprises who was also an executive member of Amritsar Computer Traders Association, mentioned that the association has been dissolved for over a year now because nobody is willing to work in tandem. “I am willing to support the association but there are just too many ego issues between people and no one wants to take any initiatives,” he said.

Varinder Singh, a former member of Amritsar Computer Traders Association added, “We have issues similar to other trades that revolves around pricing, competition and issues created by giant companies. Such issues are on the rise at the moment but there is no proper body in Amritsar through which we can raise our concerns. We desperately need an association but no one is willing to take the initiative.”