Minutes of the 59 th Annual General Body Meeting of the Indian Association of Occupational Health held on 23rd January, 2009 at 6-00 pm at Town Hall, Jamnagar The following members attended the meeting: SL NAME BRANCH NO 1 Dr. S. M. Shanbhag Mumbai 2 Dr. M. V. Sreenivasan Karnataka 3 Dr. S. R. Pingle Mumbai 4 Goa 5 Dr. Jagadish R. Kamath Vadodara 6 Dr. S. V. Datar Mumbai 7 Dr. C. S. Gulvady Mumbai 8 Dr. Sanjay Rana Vadodara 9 Dr. M. A. Santawani Jamnagar 10 Dr. H. R. Raj Mohan Karnataka 11 Dr. A. G. Harshe Pune 12 Dr. Sivaramakrishnan Mumbai 13 Dr. G. K. Kulkarni Mumbai 14 Dr. N. N. Bhatiker Goa 15 Dr. K. J. Kamat Mumbai 16 Dr. D. T. Jadhav Mumbai 17 Dr. Ramnik Parekh Mumbai 18 Dr. S. K. Raut Pune 19 Dr. Rajendra Gupta Jamnagar 20 Dr. S. Bhakhtiar Choudhary Andhra Pradesh 21 Dr. J. Vijay Rao Andhra Pradesh 22 Dr. G. P. Solanki Silvasa Vapi 23 Dr. Ravimohan H P Karnataka 24 Dr. G. T. Shetty Pune 25 Dr. R. J. Malani Vidharbha 26 Dr. S. K. Choudhary Vidharbha 27 Dr. S. S. Sarkar Dhanbad 28 Dr. Ashish Mishra Mumbai 29 Dr. P V R N Iyer Ahmedabad 30 Dr. R. Murlidharan Tamilnadu 31 Dr. A. R. Sayed Ibrahim Tamilnadu 32 Dr. Balaji S. Lakshmipuram Karnataka 33 Dr. Mangalam Rathod Ahmedabad IAOH - India's leading NGO in Occupational and Environmental Health 1
34 Dr. G. S. Hattangady Mumbai 35 Dr. P. L. Anakhia Ahmedabad 36 Dr. M. B. Leuva Ahmedabad 37 Dr. Kishor G. Parikh Vadodara 38 Dr. Adity Paliwal IAOH member 39 Dr. Arun Kumar Manuel Mumbai 40 Dr. Shekhar Galinde Mumbai 41 Dr. S. Ganeshan Delhi 42 Dr. S. H. Saraf Pune 43 Dr. Suresh R. Mijar Pune 44 Dr. Suhas V. Kanitkar Pune 45 Dr. V. P. Joshi Pune 46 Dr. L. N. Reddy Tamilnadu 47 Dr. Shashikala Chandrasekar Karnataka 48 Dr. H. T. N. Sahu 49 Dr. Ramesh M. Bhalerao Thane Raigad 50 Dr. Bharat Palan Mumbai 51 Dr. D. V. Lele Mumbai 52 Dr. Girish N. Baindur Karnataka 53 Dr. Suhas Gurlhosur Karnataka 54 Dr. Divyang Shah Jamnagar 55 Dr. Hitesh Singala Jamnagar 56 Dr. Rajiv Kumar Jain Delhi 57 Dr. Dharmesh Parekh Mumbai 58 Dr. Ravindra Udiavar Thane - Raigad 59 Dr. J. H. Paralikar Baroda 60 Dr. K. P. Madhwani Mumbai 61 62 63 After confirming the quorum, meeting was called to order. President Dr Shanbhag welcomed the members of Indian Association of Occupational Health to the 59 th Annual General Body meeting. Before beginning with the agenda President brought to the notice of the General Body, the sad demise of Dr. Bopardikar of Pune branch in an accident. He requested all IAOH - India's leading NGO in Occupational and Environmental Health 2
members to stand up for observance of one-minute silence as a mark of respect to the departed soul. The august body observed the condolence. Agenda 1 Confirmation of the minutes of the 58 th Annual General Body Meeting held on 24 th January 2008 at 5-00 pm at C J Hall, Hotel ITC Grand central, Mumbai. The minutes were confirmed and passed. Proposed by: - Dr. A. Harshe. Seconded by: - Dr. S Sivaramakrishnan Agenda 2 Business arising out of the same. -- NIL --. Agenda 3 To receive and adopt the annual report of the Association for the year 2008. The report was unanimously adopted. Proposed by: - Dr H R Raj Mohan. Seconded by: - Dr S Raut. Agenda 4 To receive and ratify the audited accounts with the auditor s report for the year 2007-08 The Audited report of the association as well as Journal was circulated to all the members present. Dr G. V. Prabhu presented the report to the august body. The President asked for any comments / queries regarding the audited accounts of the association as well as that of the Journal. As there were no queries by any member the august body adopted the audited report unanimously. The audited report of the association: Proposed by: - Dr. Vijaya Rao Seconded by: - Dr. Jadhav The audited report of the Journal: Proposed by: - Dr. Kamath Seconded by: - Dr. Mangalam Rathod IAOH - India's leading NGO in Occupational and Environmental Health 3
For the information of the General body president explained that the earlier auditor and the present auditor have brought to our notice that of whatever donations / funds collected, 80% should be spent in the same year otherwise it becomes taxable and we will have problem with charity commissioner. This was discussed at length in central council meeting and it has been decided that if there are any projects the branches like to take up, they can write to the center and if found appropriate the center would participate in such programmes with financial aid and if there are no projects as such or the projects of the branches found to be inappropriate than the center would allocate the accumulated funds to the journal of the association. This requires the approval of the General body. The general body endorsed the decision of the president. Agenda 5 To pass the annual budget estimated for 2009 2010. Dr. G. V. Prabhu presented the proposal of the budget for the year 2009-2010.Dr G K Kulkarni requested for the review on the budget estimate for the Journal. The matter was deliberated and the president assured to give due consideration. After discussion, the proposed annual budget estimate was passed. Proposed by: - Dr Sivaramakrishnan. S Seconded by: - Dr R. Rajesh Agenda 6 To appoint auditors for the year 2009-2010. President said that as it was mentioned earlier, the auditor of the association Mr. Patel passed away, we have handed over the accounts to Mr. Bhandari at Mumbai. During last AGM as well as the council meeting, the august body had authorized the office bearers to go ahead with the new auditor. So now we have given auditing part to Mr. Bhandari and he has already started his work. President requested the approval by the august body so that it can be put on records. The general body accepted it. IAOH - India's leading NGO in Occupational and Environmental Health 4
Agenda 7 Resolutions to remove the name of a member from the association as per part III 8 B ii c of the byelaws. President explained to the august body regarding the misconduct of one of the senior members of the association during the year without mentioning the name. The member had written a letter to the editor of IJOEH (International Journal of Occupational & Environmental Health) and it was published in the journal. The letter was titled Industry Influence on IAOH where in he has made baseless and false allegation on IAOH. The president has taken the serious note of the published letter and called for an immediate telephonic discussion of all the central council members at all India level. After long deliberation it was decided to write a strong worded letter to the member and to call for an explanation within two weeks about his unwarranted behavior and unbecoming action amounting to Indiscipline on his behalf. Accordingly, the secretary conveyed the same to the member and a reply was received by the secretariat. The same was discussed in second central council meeting of IAOH held on 18 th October 2008 at Hyderabad. The council has not accepted the reasons given by the member as justification enough for defaming of the association. Therefore the council decided to write to the member again calling for an unqualified apology in writing for the unwarranted misconduct on his part as a member of the association and the letter of apology should reach the secretariat within 30 days of the receipt of the letter. The member was also given an option to resign from the primary membership of the association. He was also informed that if none of the above actions are forthcoming from the member, the council would be left with no other option than to refer the matter as a resolution to the general body to remove his name from the membership of the association. The same letter was sent by registered post and acknowledgement has been received. But member has not taken any action at his end. Now the matter is left to the august body to take appropriate decision and further course of action. After long deliberation the general body decided to remove his name from the primary membership of the association. The same was put to vote and all the members present in the general body were unanimous about removing the name of the member from the primary membership of the association. Accordingly the resolution was passed. IAOH - India's leading NGO in Occupational and Environmental Health 5
The in-coming secretary has been advised to write a letter to the member about the decision taken by the general body. Agenda 8 To consider any other matter with the permission of the chair. President shared some of the decisions taken by his team during the last two years and said some of them have been successfully completed and some of them are still to be done. To highlight some of the achievements he mentioned the following; 1) The team has conducted occupational health awareness programs / workshops to PHC Doctors, general practitioners, engineers, school children from different schools. We have also been successful in developing awareness and rapport among stakeholders to the present level and if this is continued with more zeal we are going to progress much more in future. 2) We had committed to come out with constitution and byelaws by incorporating all the amendments and today we are happy to place the same in front of this august body. This was possible due to consistent work of our secretary Dr. Sreenivasan along with other senior members like Dr. G K Kulkarni, Dr. Keshavamurthy, Dr. Revanna Siddesh and others. The new byelaw book has come out beautifully and the same will be distributed to all the members present here. 3) We have committed to revamp the website of IAOH and issue life members certificate. This has taken little more time than expectation. The certificate will be issued only after revamping / updating the website, we are in discussion with two / three vendors about the same. President projected some of the website files as well as life member s certificate though and said that this is open for further discussion for making any appropriate changes in it. He said access would be given to each member to upload his data by using his password. And in future also any change in address can be updated. He also mentioned that there will be link with other website such as ICOH etc to access for more information. He said it would be possibly completed in next six months. He asked for any comments from members. A) Dr. Datar said any information fed by the new member should be validated by one of the IAOH office bearers, President agreed for this and replied such steps in maintaining the database will be undertaken. B) Dr. J. Kamath brought about the updating of names of the office bearers of the all the branches in the souvenir as well as at the center and there should be a strict guideline to all the branches to adhere to this and the list of office members, IAOH - India's leading NGO in Occupational and Environmental Health 6
Central council members and members should be sent in time. Replying to the point raised, Secretary brought out the problem faced by the center by not getting proper information from the branches in time in spite of repeated letters, e-mails or speed posts sent to branch secretaries. Some branches are not responding to the guidelines to be followed by the branches clearly mentioned in the byelaw book. Incoming secretary will take further action on this particular issue. C) Mr. Muralidhar said that mostly the members from south India and western India attend these annual conferences and there is no much representation from north India and eastern India. President replied it is difficult to comment on this issue, but it may be because of economic recession and financial position of the companies and members are not being deputed for the conference. And we cannot discuss this issue further. D) Dr. Palan said that he is not receiving journal for the last 3 years in spite of giving correct address but other letters are being received. Dr. Kulkarni replied that it may local postal delivery problem, as the journal is not being returned to the Journal office. E) Dr. Mangalam Rathod said he is getting journal regularly but there is no correspondence from central office. President replied that the center has not received any communication from Ahmedabad branch for last few years. Now it is his duty to sit with the Secretary and to find out what he should do to revive Ahmedabad branch so that there will be good correspondence in future. F) Dr. Kamath wanted to know how many branches have sent the audited report to the center so that august body also have an idea, Secretary replied that 50% of the branches are sending the audited report regularly. Secretary replied that the center has circulated updated amendments to all the branches and also sending letters in the month of august / September just to remind the branch secretaries to fulfill the formalities. Dr Parlikar said that action should be taken against the branches that do not send reports regularly for which president replied the incoming team will further look into the matter G) Dr. Kishore Madwani brought out the issue whether the endorsement of some products of some companies such as Godrej can be done. This has been debated earlier and not worked out clearly. We have to come out with a proper solution and recommendation at a proper forum so that tomorrow some body should not point at us for improper decision. This can be discussed with incoming committee. Dr Bhakthiar choudry said IMA has done some projects with the help of experts in the IAOH - India's leading NGO in Occupational and Environmental Health 7
field and executed few of them. Dr Sivaramakrishnan said a committee was formed earlier and sent the reports to Godrej and they have not turned up. Dr Ramanik Parekh said there can be the scope for corruption in this matter and one has to be careful. President replied the incoming committee could work this out. H) Dr. Kulkarni appreciated the work of Dr. Shanbhag, Dr. Sreenivasan and their team for the full year. He said that Dr. Shanbhag has enhanced the interaction with all governmental agencies and stakeholders and has brought up the association in the last two years. The august body endorsed the views of Dr Kulkarni to place on records the service rendered by Dr Shanbhag and his team. Agenda 8: Investiture of the new office bearers The Secretary on the advice of the president announced the results of the Election held which were Unanimous and ratified by the General body. Dr Shanbhag, President welcomed the New President Dr Shyam Pingle and his team and handed over the charge to new office bearers. The new office bearers for the year 2009 & 2010 include the following. Dr Shyam R Pingle ---------------------------President Dr M V Sreenivasan ---------------------------Vice president Dr Chaitanya Gulvady -------------------------Vice president Dr Sunil Kakodkar ----------------------------General Secretary Dr J Vijaya Rao -------------------------------Hon. Treasurer Dr Siddaram Raut ------------------------------Joint Secretary. Dr. Chaitanya Gulvady proposed the name of Dr.M. V. Sreenivasan for the post of senior Vice president and the general body approved the same. Dr. Gulvady also proposed that since he has worked for the Journal for a long duration of time and now that is holding the post of Vice President, he would want to step down as Journal Secretary and proposed the name of Dr. Kishore Madhwani which was accepted by him and the General body. The meeting ended with Dr. M.V. Sreenivasan proposing vote of thanks to the Chair and executive committee of the Jamnagar branch for elaborate arrangements and all members for active participation in the AGM. Hon. General Secretary, IAOH (I) IAOH - India's leading NGO in Occupational and Environmental Health 8