Exclusive! Poonam Dhillon hits back at CINTAA members allegations after mass resignations
In a significant development within the Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA), eight elected members of its Executive Committee have resigned from their respective offices and the association’s Executive Committee with immediate effect, citing a loss of confidence in the present manner of functioning and calling for fresh elections. They alleged that the functioning of the association had increasingly become concentrated around CINTAA President Poonam Dhillon and Senior Vice President Padmini Kolhapure, along with a section of other Executive Committee members.
Speaking to us, Poonam says, “Padmini and I are working hard to bring goodwill to CINTAA by using our resources and contacts; it is not for personal gain. No one else was taking initiatives to do anything for members of the organisation, so I’m shocked by their allegations. These members were trying to protect CAWT (Cine Artistes’ Welfare Trust), a trust formed by senior actors like late Dilip Kumar, Amrish Puri and Amjad Khan and others. This trust has not fulfilled its duty to provide medical facilities for members. In the past few decades, no one on the current committee has raised money for CAWT. We recently raised funds through an event and gifted sarees to artistes like Kavita Krishnamurthy and Madhushree and a kurta to Nitin Mukesh, who performed without charging us. The members who resigned are accusing us of buying sarees, did we buy those sarees for ourselves? We acknowledge that these artistes performed for us at no cost, through these gifts. Padmini and I had called them personally and they performed at our behest.” She adds that the singers did a favour for CINTAA. “We raised 1 crore through these performances, so how is it a problem if we spend 1 lakh on gifts for them?” Poonam questions.
She goes on to add that these members had been promised certain things and high posts if a new committee comes in. “Puneet (Issar) has barely attended two meetings in two years, but the day they wanted to dissolve the committee, they were beckoned just to vote us out,” reveals the actor. She adds that certain members were pressurised to resign. “We still have the majority and the committee still stands,” says Poonam.
Addressing allegations by General Secretary Upasana Singh, who has called the EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) by Poonam and her team illegal, the actor says, “The resignation of former members was received by the General Secretary and not accepted by EC (Executive Committee). Meanwhile we held an EGM with a member who had withdrawn her resignation and inducted in seven new members on top of the elected list. Only after that resignations were accepted. So the EC stands. This process was vetted by our legal team.”
She adds that Padmini and she have been bearing expenses from their own pockets to run CINTAA and have been conducting regular checks on TV sets, educating members on labour codes. The actor says she has several other initiatives planned for the betterment of the organisation.
