Ahmedabad, Sept. 13: His rivals want Verghese Kurien to vanish from Anand but he is in no mood to quit. At 83, he plans to replicate his Amul success story three times over.

Undeterred by the conflict with his prot?g? Amrita Patel, chairperson of the National Dairy Development Board, Kurien is busy working out modalities to set up three more Anand-type institutes of rural management in the east, north and south.

“The idea is to empower rural folk and produce more Kuriens,” the father of the White Revolution said today.

He said the Orissa government had already allotted 60 acres for an institute but the process was getting delayed because a board member of Anand did not take up the assignment.

A second institute is likely to be set up in Haryana.

Asked about the conflict with Patel, Kurien said he had made a mistake by getting her appointed as chairperson. The conflict was one of “cooperatisation versus corporatisation”, he added. “I groomed her for 30 years and I was convinced she had imbibed the co-operative ethos and spirit. I was wrong.”

Kurien said trouble began nearly three years ago when he had made up his mind to retire. “It was then the bureaucrats decided to capture NDDB,” he said, indicating Patel was a pawn in the hands of babus who want control of the dairy board.

“Instead of empowering cooperatives and the people, she empowered bureaucracy and corporatised Amul ? a brand owned by farmers ? and talked about a joint venture with NDDB holding 51 per cent share. That was the genesis of the conflict,” he said.

Hoping he would win the battle, he said Patel should know a “good idea cannot be killed”. He declined comment on where things were headed, saying the Prime Minister had assured him he would look into the matter.

Kurien said all major milk producing countries, including the US, had milk co-operatives. “I do not think corporatisation is an answer.”

On the controversial sacking of Anand institute director Pratap Reddy, Kurien said it was a fallout of the conflict with Patel. He said he was not holding any executive position at the institute.

On his retirement plans, he said: “Only after I find a suitable replacement.”