Minutes of TSEWA Core Committee Meeting held at 1000 hrs on 20 Sep 2019 at 143, Vayupuri, Secunderabad

The following attended the meeting:-

1. Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)                               –         President – in chair
2. Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd)                      –         Vice President
3. Col Dr GB Sethi (Retd)                                     –         General Secretary
4. Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy (Retd)                    –         Offg Treasurer
5. Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd)                             –         Joint Secretary
6. Hony Capt B Joseph (Retd)                            –         Joint Secretary
7. Col N Sitaramaiah (Retd)                                –         Member
8. Maj Dr B Bhikshapathy (Retd)                       –         Member
9. Lt Col N Ravi Choudhary (Retd)                    –         Legal Advisor

The President welcomed all the members to attend the weekly Core Committee meeting. The meeting should have been held on the Saturday, 21 Sep 2019. But six out of 10 district ESM Associations requested TSEWA to assist in the formation of Telangana State Confederation. Since this takes lot of time, it was decided to have the Core Committee meeting on 20 Sep 2019 and the formation of Telangana State Confederation be organized on 21 Sep 2019 under the auspicious of TSEWA.

The President requested General Secretary to give his points.

Points from General Secretary 

Item No 1: Assistance in Formation of Telangana State Confederation. Col Dr GB Sethi,  General Secretary explained that six out of 10 district ESMs Associations were willing to form Telangana State Confederation to come under umbrella of NCESMO (National Confederation of ESM Organisations). They requested TSEWA to help them in formation of the State Confederation as it was done for Andhra Pradesh who become 13^th member of NCESMO. Accordingly, this request was discussed in the Core Committee meeting held on 07 Sep and Core Committee approved extending all the help in formation of Telangana State Confederation. Since this event will take lot of time, it was felt that Core Committee be held one day before i.e. Friday 20 Sep 2019. It was expected 20 members from these six District ESM Associations will take part in the deliberations.

After deliberations, the agenda of 21 Sep 2019 was decided as under: –

(a)   President, TSEWA will give his welcome address to the six district ESM Association office bearers.
(b)   General Secretary will inform the purpose of the meeting.
(c)   Cmde Sudheer Parakala, Vice President will make a presentation on NCESMO.
(d)   Col N Sitaramaiah will explain how the Andhra Pradesh State Confederation was formed in the office of TSEWA.
(e)   Col N Sitaramaiah will then conduct formation of Telangana State Confederation after ascertaining from the six district ESM Association office bearers their willingness to form Telangana State Confederation. Thereafter, he will hold election of President, Vice-President if required. If amongst the District ESM Association office bearers agree to elect unanimously President and Vice-President, then there is no need for elections.
(f)    Gp Capt CRR Sastry and Lt Col N Ravi Choudhary will jointly frame the Memorandum of Association for formation of the Telangana State Confederation of ESM Organisations and draft letter to the President NCESMO to allow them to join the organization as 14^th member.
(g)   TSEWA will host lunch thereafter.
(h)   Dispersal after lunch.
(j)    All Core Committee members will participate in the formation of Telangana State Confederation.

Decision of the Core Committee. The Core Committee approved the agenda and directed all Core Committee members to be present in the formation of Telangana State Confederation at 1045 hrs on 21 Sep 2019.

Item No 2: Appointment of Officiating Treasurer. The General Secretary informed that in the Core Committee meeting held on 14 Sep 2019, Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy accepted to take over the responsibility of Treasurer as Lt Col G Parvathesam is proceeding to USA and will return only by end of Mar 2020. The Core Committee thanked Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy for accepting to take over as Treasurer.

Item No 3: Agenda for Next Meeting of NCESMO with Hon’ble Raksha Mantri.  General Secretary informed that Brig Kartar Singh (Retd), President, NCESMO informed that next quarterly meeting with Hon’ble Raksha Mantri is likely to be held very shortly and requested all members of NCESMO to forward agenda points.

This was discussed at length. The Core Committee finally arrived at consensus in that TSEWA should inform President NCESMO to consider the following : –

(a)   Brief introduction of members of NCESMO to the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri.
(b)   Seek review of agenda points in the previous two meetings held in Nov 2018 and Feb 2019.
(c)   Seek date for next meeting of NCESMO.

Decision of the Core Committee. The Core Committee directed President TSEWA to immediately send the agenda points to Brig Kartar Singh (Retd) for next meeting of NCESMO with Hon’ble Raksha Mantri.

Item No 4: Reservists Legal Case. The General Secretary expressed his anguish of the slow progress of the legal case of the reservists. Gp Capt CRR Sastry explained that documents submitted by the various Presidents of TSEWA were examined in detail and those found to be eligible for filing the case in AFT Delhi have been sent to Delhi. He said there are four types of reservists and their cases being different we need to file four types of legal cases in AFTs.

(a)   Type I: Those getting reservist pension but not getting benefit of OROP.
(b)   Type 2: Those soldiers who were offered lumpsum amount at the time of completion of 9 years of colour service as per the existing practice. Many of them accepted the lumpsum which was much higher than the monthly pension.
(c)   Type 3: Govt of India did not give an option for Reserve service liability on the pretext that there are no vacancies for reserve duties in units.
(d)   Type 4:  Those who did not opt for reserve liability as they found Govt of India has not given earlier pensioners to serve in reserve period on the pretext that there are no reserve duties in the units after Indo Pak war of 1971.

Gp Capt CRR Sastry informed that 14 cases were sent to Delhi to our advocate as they have chance of getting justice. There are eight from IAF and six from Army. Two cases are therefore required to be filed in AFT Delhi. For the rest, cases need to be filed in various regional benches.

The President requested Gp Capt CRR Sastry and Lt Col N Ravi Choudhary to kindly segregate the documents of the reservists held in office of TSEWA into  four categories and explore the feasibility of filing them in Circuit bench, Secunderabad of AFT Chennai.

Hony Capt B Joseph, Joint Secretary offered his services in segregation of the documents into four types.

Decision of the Core Committee. The Core Committee directed Gp Capt CRR Sastry and Lt Col N Ravi Choudhary with help from Hony Capt B Joseph to segregate the cases into four categories by 30 Sep 2019 and then file them in Circuit bench of Secunderabad of AFT Chennai.

Item No 5: Action of President, TSEWA, Manipur. The General Secretary informed that Lt Col LM Singh on assuming the appointment of President, TSEWA, Manipur has commenced his duties with earnest desire to help the ESMs and family pensioners of Manipur. He commenced enrolling ESMs and family pensioners from Manipur as members of TSEWA.  Every day he sends membership forms of few ESMs and family pensioners online and today i.e. 20 Sep 2019 he sent applications from 10 of ESMs. He informed that he collected membership fees and voluntary donations from ESMs and family pensioners of Manipur of Rs 5,000 which he will send immediately to HQ TSEWA.

Decision of the Core Committee.  The Core Committed applauded the efforts of Lt Col LM Singh (Retd) President, TSEWA, Manipur and General Secretary, Manipur State ESM Welfare Association to bring relief to the veteran community of Manipur.

Item No 6: Donations from Members.The following members donated the following amounts: –

(a)   Wg Cdr AB Bhushan   –        Rs 5,000
(b)   Sgt Ashutosh Dey        –        Rs 10,000

Decision of the Core Committee.   The Core Committee thanked these two donors for their generosity.

Item No 7:  Donations Being Received for Smt Zalengkim. The General Secretary informed that TSEWA continues to receive donations to help out Smt Zalengkim. In the Core Committee meeting held on 14 Sep 2019, it was decided that the balance money received shall be put in a fixed deposit in SBI Bhaskar Rao Nagar, Secunderabad and interest accrued will be sent to Lt Col LM Singh (Retd) to be given to Smt Zalengkim on quarterly or half yearly basis to help her to look after huge family of nine members..

The President informed that a mail has come from Lt Col LM Singh(Retd) about disposal of balance money. He suggested that TSEWA has cleared all the debts of Smt Zalengkim by sending Rs 5.50 lakhs. He further added that there are many such wives of deceased ESMs in Manipur. He recommended that balance money be put in fixed deposit in Secunderabad and send to him periodically to help others in penury on approval of Charity Div. The money could then be disbursed to deserving other widows.

Col N Sitaramaiah suggested that the money was donated by kind hearted donors. Therefore, TSEWA should first consult the donors whether the interest accrued out of fixed deposit from the balance money deposited in SBI, Bhaskar Rao Nagar be sent to Smt Zalengkim or to be utilised to help other similarly placed widows.

Decision of the Core Committee.  After long discussion, the Core Committee approved recommendation of Col N Sitaramaiah and instructed President, TSEWA to inform all the donors of two options and seek their wish. The option selected by majority of donors be implemented.

Item No 8:  Feedback to DGEME. The General Secretary suggested that a feedback be given to DGEME and inform him of our inability to get the amounts of recovered from JCOs/OR of EME who did not furnish option certificate from PAO (OR/EME).

The President suggested that in the feedback we should suggest that DGEME should discuss this issue with Adjutant General and take it up with CGDA to direct CDA Secunderabad to give instructions to PAO (OR) EME to refund the recoveries made from JCOs / OR who did not opt to come under new pay scales of Central Pay Commission (CPC). Alternately, CGDA should direct CDA, Secunderabad to instruct PAO (OR/EME) to furnish the recoveries made to enable TSEWA to file the case AFT – 20 in AFT Delhi. The case is lying with our advocate in AFT Delhi for want of the amount of recoveries made.

Decision of the Core Committee.  The Core Committee instructed President, TSEWA to give the feed back to DGEME on the letter head of TSEWA.

Point from President

Item No 9:  The President explained that henceforth cases sent by members or Presidents of TSEWA at all levels or members of Executive committee to help out ESMs and family pensioners in penury be decided by the Charity Division. If the Charity div feels Rs 25,000 which is within their powers to sanction will help out the beneficiaries, then the same be disbursed after ascertaining the genuineness of the case. If the financial assistance is more than Rs 25,000 then the case be put up to the Executive committee and after obtaining their approval, the Treasurer can remit the financial assistance. If the case is similar to that of Capt Vijendar Singh Gurung of Dehradun or Smt Zalengkim and funds available with TSEWA is not adequate then President Charity Div should request the members to donate liberally to help one of our own community members.

After lengthy discussion, the members expressed that if we have to raise donations, then it be done by President, TSEWA to request the members as it was done in the case of Capt Vijendra Singh Gurung and Smt Zaleng Kim.

Decision of the Core Committee. The Core Committee President, Charity Div of TSEWA to undertake the following actions:-

(a)   If the financial assistance is upto Rs 25,000 the Charity Div can sanction the amount to the beneficiary after ascertaining the genuineness of the case and completing the documentation.
(b)     If the financial assistance sought is beyond the powers of Charity Div, the President, Charity div should seek approval of Executive Committee and then remit the financial assistance.
(c)   If the financial assistance is beyond the availability of funds with TSEWA, then President Charity Div should request President, TSEWA to get donations from members like it was done for Capt Vijendra Singh Gurung and Smt Zaleng Kim.

There being no other point, the President declared the meeting as closed.

Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President, TSEWA