What you should know as a Member

THIS IS IMPORTANT

As you may be aware, a LOC to organise AIOC 2010 was formed in a Special GB meeting of OSWB on 20th March 2008 at Calcutta Medical College. The composition of the said LOC was deemed incomplete and one sided by many of our members.

After the General Elections of OSWB in June 2008, the incoming Hony. Secretary was invited by Dr. P K Chatterjee, Chairman of LOC on 28/7/08 to Susrut Hospital to have a round of talks with Dr.Gautam Bhaduri, Organising Secretary AIOC 2010 to discuss and give the LOC a wider base and a balanced look. Dr. Debasish Bhattacharya and Dr.Ratish Paul were also present in the said meeting.

It is not out of place to mention that the existing LOC had no names of the newly elected members of the Executive Committee of OSWB in its wings. This marked the beginning of a series of meetings which were to be held later over several months in order to give the LOC a broad based look with total representation of West Bengal and respect to the senior members.

A series of such meetings were held at several places through mediators like Prof. Ranabir Mukherji,Dr.Debnath Chatterjee, Dr. Ratish Ch. Pal etc. However, the series of meetings proved non productive due to the rigid stance of only a few decisive persons of the existing LOC and valuable time was running out. At the request and insistence of some seniors, Dr. Ashis Bhattacharya, Dr. Ranjan Chowdhury, Dr. J. Bhunia, Dr. B. K. Sarkar and Dr. Puspita Sahu visited RIO on 23rd January, 2009 with prior appointment to meet Dr. Himadri Datta,Treasurer of the LOC and others to discuss and find a way to an amicable solution regarding arrangements of AIOC 2010 and the remodelling of the LOC.

Dr. Himadri Dutta was firm and maintained that the existing LOC with its basic structure and names should be kept intact. Members willing to work for the conference may be added only to the sub committees. He also suggested that new sub-committees may be formed for smooth functioning. He also mentioned that as Dr. Gautam Bhaduri, the Organising Secretary of the LOC had suggested to include Dr. Ashis Bhattacharya?s name as another Organising Secretary together with him, he had no objection to it. However he pointed out that there could be only one Treasurer. He also agreed to the proposal of including Dr. Debasish Bhattacharya, Dr. Avijit Ghosh and Dr. Ratish Ch. Pal at suitable positions in the LOC. As a general policy he wished that all the past presidents should be enlisted as Patrons and other senior members as Advisors. Dr.Ranjan Chowdhury, being the Treasurer of OSWB, could be a Joint Treasurer and could also be the Chairman of the Finance Committee. Other people present in the meeting were Dr. P N Biswas, Dr. Sambuddha Ghosh, Dr. Krishnendu Sarkar, Dr. Soumya Chatterjee and Dr. R P Ghosh.

Dr.Himadri Dutta suggested that a further meeting be held to give a complete shape to the LOC and that he would be communicating the date and venue and time of the same to Dr.J.Bhunia on the night of 23rd January, 2009. However, for some unknown reason, Dr. Himadri Dutta did not contact Dr.Bhunia or anybody else any more. Also due to ?no reply?, he could not be contacted over phone.

Precious time was running out. Precious, because the AIOS representatives were to visit Kolkata on 30th January 2009 to inspect the venue of AIOC 2010. Finally when they did arrive on the 30th Jan. 2009, absolutely nothing had been decided about the LOC. Nor were the dates of the conference finalised. The venue? Netaji Indoor Stadium or Science City ? No concrete answers were ready.

Dr. Lalit Verma and Dr. R V Azad on 30th January 2009 gave a patient hearing to the representatives of LOC and Executive Committee of OSWB and suggested that the existing LOC be expanded and passed in a GB meeting and subsequently should be placed in the OBSC and Managing Committee meeting of AIOS on 4th Feb 2009 at Jaipur.

The Special General Body meeting of OSWB was held on 2nd February 2009 with a proper quorum. The Vice President, in the absence of President and President Elect chaired the meeting. An expanded LOC was proposed to the members of the general body for approval. The expanded LOC carefully accommodated many new names with inputs from the attending members keeping the structure and names of the existing LOC intact in keeping with the request of Dr. Himadri Dutta. The complete committee of the expanded LOC was read out before the members and was passed unanimously.

Dr. Ashis Bhattacharya was included as another Organising Secretary along with Dr. G. Bhaduri and Dr. Debasish Bhattacharya was entrusted with the post of Chief Executive Officer. It was also passed unanimously that the signatories of the bank account of LOC will be any three out of four i.e. 2 Org. secretaries, Treasurer and Chairman of Finance Committee. Further proposals were :

* The AIOC 2010 conference will be at Kolkata.
* The venue will be Science City.
* The dates will be 21, 22, 23 and 24th January 2010.
* The office secretariat will be the office of OSWB at Creek Row.

All the above proposals were passed unanimously by the members and the meeting concluded with thanks to the chair. The completed list of the expanded LOC thus adopted in the Special General Body Meeting was sent the same evening to Dr.Lalit Verma, Hony.Secretary General of AIOS. On the 4th February 2009 at the OBSC Meeting at Jaipur, Dr.Gautam Bhaduri was asked as to whether he endorsed the composition of the expanded LOC sent to Dr,Lalit Verma from the OSWB office on 2nd Feb.2009. Dr.Bhaduri answered in the affirmative. Dr. Babu Rajendran asked Dr.Bhaduri that he had heard about a stay order being issued to OSWB from court and whether he (Dr.Bhaduri) was aware of any such move or had taken any legal steps himself against the Special GB and the expanded LOC. Dr. Bhaduri answered in the negative. The conference AIOC 2010 was confirmed at Kolkata.

Subsequently at the AGM on 7th February 2009 and Valedictory session on 8th February 2009 Dr.Ashis Bhattacharya was invited by Dr.Lalit Verma to formally invite all members in attendance for the AIOC 2010 at Kolkata. Dr.Ashis Bhattacharya extended a cordial invitation to all present.

On the afternoon of 10th February, 2009, a legal notice was served on OSWB, its President and Hony.Secretary .The advocate of the complainant, Dr. Rupam Roy (currently employed as RMO in RIO) pointed out in the covering letter that there is a High Court order on OSWB asking it to maintain ?status quo? with respect to its functioning till 28th February 2009. This was because the complainant questioned the validity of the Special GB meeting held on 2nd February 2009 and its resolutions thus arrived upon after receiving a letter from Dr.Gautam Bhaduri where he stated that the Special GB Meeting was illegal.

OSWB appointed a lawyer immediately for its defence. It was clarified that the Society can carry on its routine normal functions but all activities of the expanded LOC formed on 2nd February 2009 have to be put on hold till the matter is resolved. Thus, after proper clarifications were obtained, OSWB carried on its scheduled Executive Committee Meeting on 12th February, 2009 and took the following resolutions:

1. AIOC 2010 will be held at Kolkata.
2. Since the expanded LOC cannot function because of the court order, the existing LOC (formed on 20th March 2008) shall be entrusted with carrying on the organisational aspects of AIOC 2010 till the matter is resolved. Hence, Dr.Gautam Bhaduri, Organising Secretary should carry on with the arrangements for organising AIOC 2010 in Kolkata.
3. OSWB being the host of AIOC 2010 needs to convey to AIOS about the progress of matters relating to organisation of AIOC 2010.Hence the existing LOC should submit a progress report to the OSWB office once every week for the appraisal of AIOS.
4. So long the matter is sub judice, OSWB in all its Executive Committee Meetings should have a fixed agenda viz. "Progress report from the existing LOC".

Dr.Ashis Kr. Bhattacharya
Kolkata 14.2.2009
Page last revised on 19.2.09