Minutes of the Virtual/ Physical Meeting of the TSEWA National Executive Committee              held at 1000 Hrs on 24 Dec 22

Attendance

The meeting was attended by the following:-

1. Cmde Sudheer Parakala                         President, in Chair
2. Brig CS Vidyasagar             Chief Mentor
3. Brig DSC Varma, VSM             Vice President
4. Brig SKS Rana, VSM             President Legal Division
5. Col Venkatesh Mahadevan             Treasurer
6. Cdr Chandrasekhar             Joint Secretary
7. Hony Capt MN Reddy             Joint Secretary
8. Col Ajit Singh Rana             President TSEWA, North Zone
9. Maj Gen SN Mukherjee President TSEWA, East Zone
10. Cmde KS Sandhu President TSEWA, West Zone
11. Cmde Ashok Kota President TSEWA, South Zone
12. Brig Vinayak Ramnarayan President TSEWA, Chatisgarh
13. Col Srikantha Seshadri             President TSEWA, Karnataka
14. Col CAJ Swamy President TSEWA, AP
15. Hav Harish Asthana President TSEWA, UP
16. WO Thiruchelvam President TSEWA, Tamil Nadu
17. Hony Capt B Joseph Member
18. Lt Col Dr. Bhaskara Reddy             Medical Advisor
19. Sgt Nishit Roy Member

The President welcomed all present in the meeting and conducted the proceedings.

 Item No. 1. Minutes of the Last NEC Meeting:  The President read out the Minutes of the previous Meeting. He said that Deputation of Brig CS Vidyasagar, Chief Mentor and Hav Harish Asthana, President, TSEWA, UP  to attend the Seminar on13 & 14 Dec at PCDA, Prayagraj was a great milestone. He said that TSEWA could show its presence and a large number of problems were resolved during the visit. He requested Brig Vidyasagar and Hav Harish Asthana to give a brief presentation.

Item No. 2.  Seminar on SPARSH:    Brig Vidyasagar gave a minute to minute narration of the events at Prayagraj through a PPT and gave status of all the 32 problems that were projected to PCDA. He said that a Very good working liaison was established with Lt Col Ranjan Kumar O I/C Defence Pensions Contact Center at PCDA. Brig Vidyasagar stated that due to numerous glitches in the software, a decision was taken to stop further migration of pensioners till end Mar 2023 and that at present cases of stoppage of the pensions only would be attended on priority. The President stated that he was getting numerous calls from veterans all over the country seeking help and that it would be difficult to convert telephone calls into written complaints. Generally, the grievances fell into one of the categories:

• Pension not granted at all
• Pensions stopped on migration to SPARSH
• Pension for two or three months not paid in the intervening period from transfer of data from CPPCs to PCDA and migration to SPARSH
• Pension neither paid by CPPC nor by PCDA through SPARSH
• In case of dual Pensions only one pension is paid

The matter was discussed at length and a large section of the Members were of the opinion that TSEWA would get a bad name if any attempt is made to take on the responsibility of getting the pension problems resolved in the absence of a formalized agreement between TSEWA and PCDA (P). A large number of callers neither had the knowledge to send an e-Mail to TSEWA explaining their problem nor had knowledge of sending WhatsAPP messages explaining their problem.  It was therefore decided that TSEWA should process routine cases received through various Presidents and not act as a service center. Brig Vidyasagar also suggested that Hav Harish Asthana should be deputed to Prayagraj once in a quarter and the President TSEWA should visit Prayagraj in Apr 2023.

Action:  All Zonal/ State Presidents are requested to do the needful.

Item No. 3. Awareness Camp at Kolkata: Maj Gen SN Mukherjee explained the details of the program and assured that necessary arrangements are being done for smooth conduct of the program on 08 Jan 23, as scheduled. He informed that the expected attendance went beyond his estimates and that the attendance may cross more than 250. He therefore sought approval to cross Rs.80,000/- expenditure towards arrangements, working lunch etc. He said that efforts were being made to raise funds through donations but it would be going beyond the estimates. Since the total expenditure may cross the Financial Powers of the President, NEC gave ‘In Principle’ approval. President East Zone was requested to minimize the expenditure and submit the actual bills to TSEWA for approval by NEC.

Action:  Maj Gen SN Mukherjee is requested to do the needful.

 Item No. 4. AFT Cases of TSEWA:  The President informed that he has spoken to TSEWA Advocate Brig Srivastava on the subject.  He informed that AFT (PB) has become active and that our pending cases would be adjudicated soon. He also informed that our first case OA 34 / 2016 is posted for hearing on 17 Jan 2023. Our Advocate has agreed to give a status report of the cases once in a quarter since there may not be any monthly progress.

Action:  Nil.

Item No. 5. TSEWA Charity: Brig Vinayak Ramnarayan, President TSEWA Chhattisgarh remarked that TSEWA has become Hyderabad Centric and not considering any requests from other states. The matter was discussed at length and the President stated that the Presidents of West Zone, East Zone, President Karnataka, UP and some other states are doing an excellent work and hence it would be incorrect to say that TSEWA is Hyderabad/South Centric. The President also stated that he had not seen any requests for financial assistance that was not considered. Brig Vinayak was therefore requested to send cases as per the standard format if any request was not considered.

Action:   President TSEWA, Chhattisgarh is requested to send the pending cases to TSEWA HQ for consideration.

Item No. 6. ECHS Problems at West Bengal. Maj Gen Mukherjee stated that there were a lot of concerns from ESM about lack of empaneled Hospitals in West Bengal due to which the veterans are facing a lot of problems in getting medical treatment. He suggested that Col Srikanta Seshadri came prepared to discuss ECHS issues during the awareness camp at Kolkata on 08 Jan 2023.

Action:  Col Srikanta Seshadri may please discuss the issues with MD ECHS

      There being no further points, the meeting was closed at 13:20 pm and decided to hold the next NEC Meeting on 21 Jan 2023 due to Kolkata awareness camp and 14 Jan being Sankranti festival.

(Sudheer Parkala)

Commodore, IN (Retd)

President, TSEWA