Amid growing pressure to restore the smooth functioning of the Miri Piri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, the (HSGMC) has convened a General House meeting on June 16 to address a prolonged deadlock within its executive body.
The meeting, called by HSGMC president Jagdish Singh Jhinda, is expected to decide the future of four executive body members who have allegedly remained absent from meetings, affecting the committee’s functioning and delaying key decisions, including the passage of annual budgets.
According to sources, 17 members of the committee had urged the president to remove the absentee members, including the senior vice-president and junior vice-president, from the executive body.
Speaking to The Tribune, Jhinda said, “Four members of the executive body haven’t been attending the meetings due to which the functioning of the HSGMC has been badly affected. The budgets of the previous and the current year are yet to be passed, and the situation has also started affecting the functioning of the Miri Piri Institute. A General House meeting has been called with the objective of constituting a new executive body.”
However, ensuring the required quorum remains a major challenge. The HSGMC house comprises 49 members, and a two-thirds majority, or 33 members, is required to complete the quorum in a General House meeting. Similarly, the 11-member executive body requires the presence of at least eight members for quorum.
Jhinda claimed that while seven executive members currently support him, one more member is needed to meet the quorum requirement.
“In the executive body, we have the support of seven members, but as per the provision, there should be eight members to complete the quorum. We are confident that more than 33 members will attend the General House meeting, and the decision regarding the new executive body will be taken. Once the new executive body is formed, the budget will be passed, and the required budget for the Miri Piri institute will be provided for smooth operations,” he said.
Meanwhile, dissenting members have challenged the move before the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission.
Junior vice-president Gurbir Singh alleged that the president was targeting members who opposed his decisions. “The HSGMC president has failed to complete the quorum in the previous meetings. He has been targeting us because we have been opposing his wrong decisions. We have approached the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission with the request that the complete executive body should be dissolved, and re-elected as per the Act. If the president has the required numbers, he can become the president again. The commission has given a notice for June 12,” he said.
The leadership crisis has also impacted the Miri Piri Hospital, where consultant specialists recently went on a one-day mass leave over non-payment of salaries for two months and had threatened to strike from Wednesday. Jhinda said he met the doctors on Tuesday and persuaded them to withdraw the strike call after assuring them that efforts were being made to clear their pending dues at the earliest.
