New IATO team

Biennial elections at the Indian Association of Tour Operators saw some expected bigwigs return to the helm while some new faces also took charge.

Pronab Sarkar won the IATO elections for the post of the president at the biennial elections held at The Park, New Delhi, on April 23, 2016.

Most of the members of his team also won at various other positions, including Rajiv Mehra as Vice President and

Amaresh Tiwari as the Honorary Treasurer. However, a surprising win was the election of Lally Matthews as the Honorary Secretary. Sandeep

Jain also had a close win as Honorary Joint Secretary with a one-vote victory.

Rajiv Kohli is the new Senior Vice President. Akshay

Kumar, the Returning Officer, declared the results after a long counting process in the evening.

Elated after the results were announced, Sarkar revealed the three point agenda of his team, “We will take IATO to new heights with the new team. Our new programme will follow the government’s motto —‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas’. We want everybody, whether an EC member or not, to contribute towards the welfare of the association and be an integral part in making it stronger so that we can face the challenges we have in our way. We also want participation of women members to work along with the Executive Committee. The third agenda is to make IATO an all India association, so that all the regions can get the benefits and the contribution of the association should be spread all over. We want our regional chapters to be stronger, and we will initiate a number of activities in all the regions.”

Supporting the election results, Subhash Goyal, Immediate Past President, IATO, said, “I am happy that I am handing over the baton to an able candidate. Pronab Sarkar has been my right hand man during my term as President. I would also like to congratulate Lally Matthews on his inclusion in the team. He is an experienced person and I am sure it will be beneficial to the entire industry.”