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Read Desk. In a significant development within the Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA), eight elected members of its executive committee have resigned from their positions and committees, effective immediately. They have expressed distrust in the current functioning of the organization and have demanded new elections.

The names of these eight elected members, as announced by CINTAA General Secretary Upasana Singh, are – Hemant Pandey, Mukesh Rishi, Sahila Chaddha, Hetal Parmar, Puneet Issar, Vindu Dara Singh, Vikas Verma and Deepak Parashar.

In their joint resignation letter, the members stated that their decision was due to repeated departures from the principles of collective decision-making, consultation, and constitutional functioning. They alleged that the association’s operations had increasingly centered around CINTAA President Poonam Dhillon and Senior Vice President Padmini Kolhapure, as well as some other members of the Executive Committee.

A portion of the letter reads, “President Poonam Dhillon has repeatedly taken unilateral decisions, sent official messages to government officials from her ID, sent unilateral messages to industry bodies from the official CINTAA ID, and represented the association publicly and before other government, quasi-judicial and industry bodies without the knowledge, advice or approval of the Executive Committee, thereby eroding the principle of collective responsibility.”

The resigning members alleged that many decisions were being made without adequate consultation or approval from the Executive Committee. The letter also alleged that Dhillon and Kolhapure visited government offices with privately hired lawyers, who allegedly posed as CINTAA’s lawyers, without the authority or approval of the Executive Committee.

These claims are part of the reasons why the resigning members have lost confidence in the current functioning of the association. Speaking to the news agency, CINTAA General Secretary Upasana Singh confirmed that 11 members had resigned, eight of whom were elected members of the executive committee.

Singh said that eight elected members have submitted complaints along with their resignations, stating the reasons for their resignations. Singh said, “Eight of our 11 elected members have resigned and submitted their resignations to me. They have also submitted their complaints, stating that Padmini Kolhapure and Poonam Dhillon are misusing their positions.”

Singh also expressed concern about the use of personal email accounts for official communications. He stated that an association’s official communications should generally be conducted through its official email system to maintain transparency and maintain records within the organization.

The actor continued, “When we need to send mail to an organization, we can’t send it from our personal email ID if we want to send it officially. This happens everywhere. Here, Poonam ji gives her personal email ID to organizations and asks them to send emails to her. This doesn’t benefit her, but it lacks transparency.”

Meanwhile, on this matter, lawyer Suvigya Vidyarthi on behalf of CINTAA clarified that the association has not been dissolved.

In a statement, Vidyarthi said, “The claim that CINTAA’s EC (Executive Committee) has been dissolved is completely false and based on a misunderstanding; this claim has no legal basis. According to the CINTAA constitution, the EC is dissolved only when more than 50% of its elected members resign, which has not happened in this case. Furthermore, as per the constitution, new members have been included in their place who were next in line in the voting tally.”