Charutar Arogya Mandal amends constitution

Vadodara/ Anand: In a historical move, the Charutar Arogya Mandal (CAM) founded in 1972 by country’s former finance and home minister Dr H M Patel, has amended its constitution for the first time.
CAM is the society and the trust that runs the Karamsad-based 800-bed Shree Krishna Hospital and the Pramukhswami Medical College.
Through the amendments which were approved during a special general body meeting on Tuesday, a board of governors will replace three earlier bodies including the general body, the governing council and the governing body which had thousands of members.The new body – the board of governors – which will comprise of 18 members including top management in addition to chairman of education trust Charutar Vidya Mandal (CVM) and president of the Karamsad Municipal Borough.
“We have been working on this front for the last two years. In fact, the constitution which was drafted for CVM during the pre-Independence era in the 1940s was adopted by CAM. But we believe that it would have not stood the test of time,” said chairman Dr Amrita Patel.
Significantly, while it is through election by the general body that chairman of many charitable organisations and NGOs get elected, with the amendments that CAM has adopted in its constitution, chairman of the board will be selected by the board of governors itself.
“This will obviate the chances of capturing the institute by means of money or power. Most charitable organisations are person-led. The changes we have adopted will ensure that people collectively work to ensure that the organisation remains in safe hands,” she said.
Also, 75 years has been fixed as age limit and restrictions have also been put on the number of terms that a member can enjoy in the board.
With this, a board member who gets selected as chairman can serve to the post maximum for a period of eight years provided he or she gets selected by the board for a second tenure of four years. “We cannot have institutes being run by people irrespective of whether their mental faculties are working or not,” she said.
Amendments have also been made in the membership rules that will enable each category of donor members to elect two representatives on the board. The number of trustees have been increased from two to four. At the same time, one-fourth of the elected members and those who are nominated as experts on the board will retire by rotation in alphabetical order upon completion of minimum one year tenure on the board during every subsequent annual general body meeting.
CAM was the brainchild of Dr H M Patel, who had founded the trust to provide healthcare facilities to the underprivileged sections in the Charotar belt in those days when Anand had no medical facilities.
Till his demise in 1993, he had served as founder chairman after which Dr Amrita Patel, his daughter and former chairman of the National Dairy Development Board took over.