Puneet Singhal re-elected CMDA President

Puneet Singhal has been unanimously re-elected as the President
of Delhi-based Computer Media Dealers Association (CMDA). On a bright sunny
Christmas day in the capital, the three-year old association held its first ever
general elections. The elections were conducted under the observation of The DQ
Week, DCTA and NACIT.

The election was held for the seven posts of executive members
out of the total 12 posts. The posts of President, VP, Secretary and Treasurer
were declared unanimously as they remained unchallenged till the last date of
withdrawal of the names.

The election saw a modest turnout on a cold and foggy morning.
And as the day progressed to a warm and sunny one, it saw a much larger turnout
of people. Out of the 106 members who had paid their annual subscription fee, 83
people turned up to cast their votes, which means 78 percent voter turnout.

Said Manoj Khanna, who was re-elected Secretary, "We had
expected the turnout of the people to be not more than 50 percent, but we are
really amazed by the number of people who have turned out today."

Apart from Singhal who again holds the post of President, VPs
are AK Pandey and Naresh Kohli, Secretary is Khanna and Treasurer is Tarun
Ahluwalia.

And for the seven posts of Executive members the winners were
Neeraj Munjal of Dhruv Sales and marketing, Shashi Agarwal of Micromax Media,
Rajesh Kataria of SL Kataria and Sons, Pramod Rajpal of Data Link (Nai Sarak),
Dinesh Chopra of Softek Surya, Raman Bansal of Hi-Life Computer and Dalip Gaur
of Ramsons Enterprises.

Held in a peaceful manner with no hard feelings the general
comment that could be heard was that the elections were held professionally and
was handled very well.

When asked as to how does it feel to be again elected
un-opposed, Khanna said, "Being elected unopposed, puts us under more
pressure." Agreed Singhal, "This shows the kind of trust people have
in us. It is a sort of recognition of our work. But this also poses more
difficulty for us as the expectations increase from the people to perform
more."

With another term, the office-bearers find themselves with a
major task. The association’s main objectives would be to have more
interaction between the members by organizing more events. It also has plans to
organize trade shows on the lines of COMDEX and also to give shape to its dream
of opening its own trade complex.

But the most important of all issues would be to bring some
solution to the way traders are harassed by transport authority and cops.
Elaborated Singhal, "As we are dealing in consumables, most of the time our
product load is very small for which it’s not feasible to hire a tempo. And
when these cops see someone carrying these products in private cars they say it’s
commercial load. We have put a petition before the CM too regarding this
problem. We want some concessions to be made to us. As it is we are working with
very tight margins."

Karma Negi

New Delhi