Minutes of 4th Annual Meeting of TSEWA General Body on 7th July 2019 at 10.00 am at Gorkhali Sudhar Sabha, Garhi Cantt, Dehradun (Uttarakhand)
The AGM of TSEWA was attended by:
Brig CS Vidyasagar President in Chair
Cmde Sudheer Parakala Vice President
Col Dr GB Sethi General Secretary
105 Members (final count as per attendance sheet) attended the meeting.
The meeting was called to order at 1000 hrs. Finding that the quorum required was not present, the President adjourned the meeting for half an hour to re-assemble at 10.30 am.
The General Body reassembled at 10.30am. The President welcomed all present and Chief Guest of the meeting Lt Gen GS Negi of 3/3 Gorkhas was felicitated. Ceremonial lamps were lit by the Chief Guest, President, Vice President and General Secretary of TSEWA. The supporters and well-wishers of TSEWA were felicitated. The President requested the Chief Guest to address the gathering.
The Chief Guest complimented the Office Bearers and active members of TSEWA for yeomen service they are rendering to the ESM and exhorted them to continue their good work.
The President thereafter requested the Chief Guest to release the Newsletter Vol 3 that is compiled once in six months. The Chief Guest unveiled the Newsletter and the President assured the members that each of them will be given a copy after the meeting. He also exhorted the members and other ESM to browse the previous issues in TSEWA blog: https://tsewa.org.
The President there after requested the General Secretary to conduct the meeting. The General Secretary took up the item of Agenda contained in the Notice convening the AGM.
Item I. Approval of Minutes of 3rd AGM. The General Secretary spoke on the Minutes of 3rd AGM and gave out action taken on them. He requested the house to approve the Minutes. The House approved the Minutes as proposed by Col S Srikantha (Retd) and seconded by Brig SKS Rana VSM (Retd).
Item II. Consideration and Approval of Audited Financial Statements. The General Secretary informed the house that Audited Financial Statements signed by the President and General Secretary of TSEWA and duly certified by M/s PS Reddy, Chartered Accountant, were circulated and hard copies were displayed outside the venue of the meeting. He also confirmed that the Audited Financial Statements were discussed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) held on the 6th July 2019 and recommended them for approval of AGM. He requested the Treasurer to explain the salient aspects of the Financial state of TSEWA which he did through a Power Point Presentation. No questions or comments were raised by the members on the Audited Financial Statements. There after General Secretary sought the approval of the house for the Audited Financial Statements. The house approved the Audited Financial Statements as proposed by Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy (Retd) and seconded by Cmde KS Sandhu (Retd).
Item III. Appointment of Auditor. The General Secretary informed that the NEC is very satisfied about the performance of M/s PS Reddy & Associates who have always rendered quality accounting advice and audit services. Besides this he has been of great assistance in pursuing our case for Exemption under Sec 80G of IT Act 1961. The firm has conveyed their willingness to be appointed as Auditor for the financial year 2019-20. The General Secretary requested the house to consider the recommendation of NEC and appoint M/s PS Reddy & Associates as Auditor for the year 2019-20. The house accorded its approval as proposed by Brig SKS Rana VSM (Retd) and seconded by Brig Suresh Nair (Retd).
Item IV. Awareness Camps held during the year 2018-19. The General Secretary informed that 14 Awareness Camps were held during the year and about 4,000 ESM and Family Pensioners who attended were benefited.
Item V. Approval of Induction of New Members into NEC. The General Secretary informed that a need was felt to have broader based Executive Committee which can guide the activities of TSEWA on a regular basis. Hence following members were co-opted into the National Executive Committee and with the recommendation of NEC, the General Secretary requested the house to approve their induction:
(a) Col MJ Ganapathy(Retd)
(b) Col N Sitaramaiah (Retd)
(c) Cdr Chandra Shekhar (Retd)
(d) Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy (Retd)
(e) Maj B Bikshapathi (Retd)
The house approved the induction as proposed by Col Ajit Singh Rana (Retd) and seconded by Col S Srikantha (Retd).
Item VI. Expansion of Core Committee by Inducting New Members. Following members were inducted into Core Committee to get wide range of views during the weekly meetings to assist the NEC to approve or reject their recommendations.
(a) Sgt Lawrence
(b) Col Vijay Salins
(c) Cmde Ashok Kota
(d) Lt Col Dr Bhaskar Reddy
(e) Mrs Rekha Sekhri
The General Secretary informed the members about their induction and the house noted it.
Item VII. Major Developments during the year 2018-19.
(a) Popularity of TSEWA Blog. The General Secretary said that TSEWA Blog has become popular with ESM fraternity which is indicated by 1.5 million hits achieved by it in a very short time. The Blog is very informative and user friendly. The popularity of the blog owes largely due to the untiring efforts of Mrs Rekha Sekhri who single handedly manages the blog. The house wholeheartedly appreciated her service to the ESM and Family Pensioners.
(b) Details of Activities. The General Secretary reviewed the activities undertaken by TSEWA active members like (i) Awareness Camps, (ii) Facilitation of Legal Cases, (iii) Charity activities, (iv) Compilation of Quarterly News Letter, (v) Liaison with CPPCs and PDAs, (vi) Loading of grievances of members and non members in CPENGRAMs, (vii) Seeking information through RTI and (viii) Projecting grievances of members of ECHS. He introduced the concerned members to the house.
(c) Registration of TSEWA Trust. The General Secretary informed the house that the deed of the TSEWA Trust as approved by AGM held in June 2017 was registered by Registrar of Societies, Bowenpally, Secunderabad as a Trust. The house noted the development.
(d) Audit by GIC London for ISO. The General Secretary said that during this year, the ISO Certification audit was satisfactorily completed and the Certificate renewing by GIC is likely to be received soon.
(e) Exemption under Sec 80G of IT Act. TSEWA obtained exemption of donation to TSEWA by Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Hyderabad. Any donor making donation to TSEWA is entitled for rebate of 50% of such donation w.e.f. financial year 2018 – 19.
(f) 64 KB Card for ECHS Beneficiaries. The General Secretary informed that the efforts of TSEWA in getting justice for the beneficiaries in the matter of 64 kb card have not succeeded. Our case filed in Hon’ble Supreme Court and Delhi High Court were dismissed. However, the beneficiaries who paid the amount for new card and obtained are facing considerable hardship as the software to support these cards is not yet put in place.
(g) Status of Legal Cases. The General Secretary informed that there is considerable delay in disposal of Cases by the AFT and also delay in filing of cases. A presentation on this will be made separately.
Item VIII. Recommendation of Members for inclusion in TSEWA Trust as Trustees. The General Secretary reiterated the recommendation of NEC to include following Members of TSEWA as Trustees to make the composition of Trust broader based to represent all sections of members and for that appointment of following members as Trustees may be considered.
(a) Brig SKS Rana, VSM
(b) Cmde Sudheer Parakala
(c) Col S Srikantha
(d) Hony Sub K Subba Rao
(e) Sgt RK Unni
The house unanimously approved the recommendation of the NEC.
Item IX. Presentation of Budget. The General Secretary then called upon the Treasurer to present the Budget of TSEWA for the financial year 2019-20. The Treasurer presented a Budget with an estimated expenditure of Rs 19.75 lakhs and was confident that Income will be sufficient to meet the expenditure. Brig SKS Rana VSM (Retd) said that the amount of Rs 2.5 lakhs earmarked for expenditure on Awareness programmes and meetings is insufficient and suggested that it be enhanced to Rs 5.0 lakhs. The Treasurer agreed and with this amendment to the Budget was unanimously approved by the House.
Item X. Presentation on Charity. Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd), President, Charity Div made a detailed presentation on the Charity Activities undertaken during the year 2018-19. While thanking donors for their donations, he appealed for more members to join the ranks of donors so that TSEWA is able to commit more for Charity. He exhorted the State Presidents and others who sponsor cases for Charity to conduct a thorough and well documented inquiry aimed at ascertaining the need for assistance in each case.
Item XI. Origin and Way Forward for National Confederation of Ex Service Men Organisations (NCESMO). Cmde Sudheer Parakala, Vice President, TSEWA made a very informative presentation on the genesis and formation of NCESMO. Giving credit to Col TN Raman (Retd) from Chennai for the Concept, he explained the need and structure envisaged for National Confederation of Ex Service Men Organisations (NCESMO). He spoke about Village/Tehsil and district level Confederation which elect representatives to sit on State Level Confederation and elect the representatives to sit on the NCESMO. He said that Agenda items will flow from Village and Tehsil to District and State levels and later to the National Levels also. The progress on these issues will filter down to the Village/ Tehsil levels. He said that two meetings with Delegation of NCESMO were held in November 2018 and February 2019 and chaired by the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri herself.
Item XII. Presentation on Legal Cases. Brig SKS Rana VSM made a detailed presentation giving the reasons for considerable delay in disposal of our cases in AFT Delhi. Severe shortage in Judicial and Administrative Members and frequent adjournments sought by Government Counsels is main cause for delay. He said that OA 34/2016 is expected to be disposed very shortly. 13 individual OAs were filed in respect of Special Family Pension for Single Ladies and 15 individual OAs were filed for broad banding in BB3 case.
There being no further points the meeting was declared closed at 2.30 pm.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President