Awareness Programme in West Bengal & Durgapur on 10 & 11 Feb 2024
Awareness Programme in West Bengal & Durgapur on 10 & 11 Feb 2024
Posted by TSEWA February 19, 2024 0 CommentsGeneral
Maj Gen Shib Nath Mukherjee (Retd), President, TSEWA East Zone, and West Bengal offered to conduct Awareness programme in Kolkata and Durgapur in Feb 2024. The same was discussed and it was approved seeing the huge response to similar programme held in Kolkata on 08 Jan 2023.
Brig DSC Varma, VSM (Retd), Vice President, TSEWA, Col Srikantha Seshadri President TSEWA, Karnataka and subject expect on ECHS and President, TSEWA landed in Kolkata on 09 Feb 2023 for the following: – a) Awareness programme at Kolkata on 10 Feb 2024. b) Awareness programme at Durgapur on 11 Feb 2024.
Untimely Demise of Lt Gen Gautam Dutt. On being informed that Lt Gen Gautam Dutt, former Engineer in Chief passed away in Fotis hospital, Kolkata on 03 Feb 2024 and being requested to visit Mrs. Nupur Dutt in Salt Lake, Kolkata to help her get with all paper work for commencement of her ordinary family, Brig DSC Varma, Col Srikatha and Maj Gen Shib Nath Mukheree met her and briefed her over two hours what she needs to do.
Dinner Hosted by Mrs. Madhumita Das on 09 Feb 2024. Mrs. Madhumita Das, wife of (Late) Lt Col Ajit Kumar Das, 13 Punjab, (49 Direct Entry course IMA, Dehradun) hosted a dinner for 12 ladies who are members of Defence Services Single Ladies of Officers group (DSSLOG) in Kolkata in honour of three from TSEWA. Her son is an instructor in Army War College, Mhow having commanded 6 AR. It was a lavish 10 course dinner in 5 star hotel 6, Bollygunge. She also gave gifts to all of us after dinner. One lady who lost her husband in INS Kukri in 1971 Indo Pak war and another 90 year old lady attended the event. Most of them came from places which were one and half hours one way travel time. Awareness Programme in Kolkata
Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha (Retd) was the Chief Guest. In spite of his busy schedule, he sat through the entire proceedings. It was held in the same venue of Jal Vayu Towers, Rajarhat, New Town, Kolkata held earlier on 08 Jan 2023. The programme on 10 Feb 2024, the Saturday was attended by houseful participants numbering 200. There was no vacant chairs. The programme was divided into pre lunch session of Seminar where subject experts will inform the Ex-Servicemen and widows (single ladies) of their entitlements and post lunch seminar of Workshop where individual problems were discussed and redressed.
Opening Address. Maj Gen SN Mukherjee at great length explained what is TSEWA and activities it underatakes to help the Ex-Servicemen. The number of Awareness programmes held, the number of legal cases filed and won, the amount of charity it does was covered over 20 mins.
The following was the sequence of presentations with the help of MS Power Point slides: – a) Pension & OROP Arrears – Brig DSC Varma, VSM(Retd) b) ECHS – Col Srikantha Seshadri (Retd). c) DSSLOG – Mrs. Madhumita Das d) SPARSH & OMCJ Report – Brig CS Vidyasagar(Retd)
Pensions & OROP. Brig DSC Varma, VSM (Retd) covered pensions both service and family pension with extensive examples easily understood. The examples were only of JCOs/OR as they came in large numbers. Due to shortage of time, he could only speak for 45 mins though he was allotted 60 mins. He also explained the reasons for many of the JCOs and Officers not getting any OROP arrears from Jul 2019 and advised them to join legal case proposed to be filed in AFT, PB, New Delhi. The reasons for this aberration was wrong fixation of pension in OROP-I (w.e.f. Jul 2014) and OROP-II (w.e.f. Jul 2019) adopted by Def Accts Dept. The pension of those not retired in base year is to be worked out by two methods i.e. reduction of pension by 3% per year from the pension of the same ranked person with same length of service and same group with one-year higher length of service (i.e. 25 years Hav not retired to get pension reduced by 26 years Hav but retired in based year). The second method is to fix pension of Hav with 24 years but retired as pension of Hav with 25 years service but not retied in base year. The beneficial method of pension fixation has to be done. But in order to save exchequer the Def Accts Dept adopted only one method of fixing pension of 12 year Major invalided with pension of Rs 51, 700 as the pension of Major retired with service of 21.50 years of service. Had it been reduction by 3% per year from Major retired with 22 years of service whose pension is fixed at Rs 68,550, the Major with 21.50 years of service (not retired) would have got 67, 522 pm. Thus, the Major with 21.50 service suffers loss of pension of Rs 15,822 +DR per month till Jul 2024. The pension of other Majors with service of 21 to 12.5(invalided) also would go up.
ECHS. Col Srikantha explained salient features of ECHS as to how to make use of cash less treatment by members of ECHS, how to upgrade ECHS card of 32 Kb to 64 kb card, what actions to be taken if the card is lost and how to get admitted under non-emergency conditions in empanelled hospitals and emergency conditions. In case it is an emergency and if empanelled hospital is not nearby or not available in that location, how the patient is to be admitted in a private hospital and claim reimbursement. He also explained to get AYUSH treatment in case Allopathy is not suitable.
DSSLOG. Mrs. Madhumita Das, Administrator of DSSLOG and Coordinator of West Bengal chapter spoke about Defence Services Single Lades of Officers Group (DSSLOG). She explained this group single ladies(widows) of deceased Officers number 732 as on date and every day two to three of them join. She explained the mission of the group is to help each other, speak with each other, pour out their grievances if any and bond as sisters of an extended family. She also showed achievements of this group in such a short time which commenced in functioning from 16 Mar 2023. The members are not only from India but also from foreign countries like USA, UK, Malasia, Australia and New Zealand. She advised JCOs /OR ladies are also required to create to similar groups to help each other. She also assured if any widow of JCOs /OR has any problems, they can contact her. She was so busy during lunch and in the post lunch session, she was almost mobbed by ladies.
SPARSH and OMJC Report. I was allotted 20 mins but due to shortage of time both subjects were covered in 10 mins. The participants were affected by SPARSH and they were assured that by Aug 2024, SPARSH is likely to be stabilized. They were advised to first contact their Record Offices to lodge any of their grievances. The only silver lining is that in SPARSH one can submit Annual Life Certificate at any time. By using the two Apps of Face Recognition and Jeevan Pramaan one can while sitting at home generate digital life certificate at any time which is valid for one year.
Justice L Narasimha Reddy, former Chief Justice of Patna High Court submitted his OMJC repor to Govt of India in Sep 2016. It contained many recommendations favouring Ex-Servicemen. The three most important recommendations out of many were (a) Reservists also should be given pension proportionate compared to a Sepoy who served for 15 years and benefit of OROP also to be given (b) Liberalised family pensioners are to be given pension for the total length of service and not actual length of service at their time of the martyrdom of their husbands by which they will get higher pension in OROP and (c) Incorrect fixation of pension of those not retired year in base year 2013 and 2019 by adopting two methods. If these recommendations are accepted by Govt of India, then most of the grievances of Ex-Servicemen and family pensioners in OROP will be resolved.
Donation. Mrs. Sangamitra Nanavaty, a single lady of IAF (wife of Gp Capt Nanavaty) and a member of DSSLOG donated Rs 20,000. This kind gesture which was much appreciated by all.
Lunch. A simple lunch was served to all those who attended the programme at 1330 hrs.
Ex-Sgt Bandopadhyay started a venture of juices employing 55 Ex-servicemen. He gave a gift of a variety of soft drinks and juice made in his venture to few dignitaries. His venture is becoming popular. He intends to spread it all over India and wants to give jobs to 500 Ex-Servicemen. Seminar
Seminar commenced at 1415 hrs. Very few had problems. Most of them were redressed then and there. For example, a Sgt of IAF(retired in 1983) informed that though he turned 81 years in Sep 2023, he is not given his old age pension by SPARSH. One young widow of an officer from Sikh LI informed that she is getting family pension. She got married in 2014 and her husband, an infantry officer died due to heart attack in 2019 with service of 8 years and 9 months (rounded off to 9 years). She is not given a PPO but she gets her ordinary family pension. She did not bring any documents. Her husband bought a car and registered in Punjab but now it has to be transferred to West Bengal. She was informed that anything occurring after one is commissioned is attributable to military service as per the judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court. If she is interested to get Special Family Penson which is double than what she is getting today, then she can join TSEWA who will not charge her any legal fees.
The entire programme got wound up by 1700 hrs on 10 Feb 2024 Awareness at Durgapur
Durgapur (famous for the Steel plant established in 1950s) was about 200 kms from Kolkata and takes about 4 hours to cover due to extensive road works of conversion of four lane into six lane. It was held in Guru Tegh Bahdur Sikh School on Kazi Nasrul Islam Road. The programme commenced at 1100 hrs. Beyond our expectations, 75 Ex-Servicemen and family pensioners attended. The sequence of programme was same as was at Kolkata. Lunch was served. All grievances posed were sorted out then and there.
We wound up our programme at Durgapur by 1600 hrs and returned to Kolkata by 2030 hrs. We returned to our respective locations on 12 Feb 2024. Conclusion
Maj Gen SN Mukherjee (Retd) and his dedicated team both in Kolkata and in Durgapur worked tirelessly for the last one month to make these two events successful. All credit for marshalling the resources required, liaison work to be done with various agencies for venue, seating arrangements, video projection system, lunch, tea, and snacks etc goes to Maj Gen SN Mukherjee. We could get 61 new members, Rs 33,291 as donations and Rs. 1,890 as membership fees. The general officer also volunteered to organise AGM of TSEWA in Jun 2025 in Kolkata when I will step down as President and Brig DSC Varma, VSM will take over as President TSEWA. We will induct Mrs. Madhumita Das as Vice -President, TSEWA to look after grievances of lady members of TSEWA in AGM 2025. She is quite knowledgeable about pensions, OROP, ECHS, CSD etc which even some of the officers do not know.
