The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and the Board of NCCF (apex consumer co-op body) differ on who has the authority to appoint the Managing Director of the apex consumer cooperative body. Their differences came to the fore when the Ministry appointed a joint secretary Anil Bahuguna as the MD. However, the NCCF BoD headed by the veteran cooperator and former MLA Bijender Singh refused to accept him or for that matter anybody appointed by the Ministry without the approval of the Board. That's because NCCF's bye-laws authorize only the Board to appoint an MD. And the Board has already appointed the officiating MD Shaukat Ali as the new Managing Director after Kamal Chaudhary. The NCCF Chairman has reportedly stated that the Board has indeed not ratified the appointment of Anil Bahuguna and instead promoted Shaukat Ali - the officiating MD as a regular MD. On May 1, NCCF wrote to the Ministry reminding it of the fact that the govt has less than 50 percent share and so its rights are limited. Further, as an expression of its annoyance with the Ministry, NCCF on Monday returned the government share but the govt is not willing to accept the same, said a top cooperator connected with NCCF. The problem is if the Ministry takes back its shares, it will lose the right of having two Directors on the NCCF Board. In fact, it cannot have even one now on the Board. So the government is caught in a dilemma.