Introduction

1. Mrs Heera Krishnan, Coordinator of Kerala spoke to me in the last week of Dec 2023 and expressed a desire of lady members of Services Single Ladies of Kerala to have an interaction with me exclusively. I requested her to give me venue, date, time, arrange for laptop and video projector to empower the participants to know their legitimate entitlement like (a) Pensions (b) OROP (c) SPARSH (d) ECHS and (e) One Man Judicial Committee Report.
2. Mrs Heera Krishnan informed me that after consulting most of the lady members, venue was Indian Medical Association (IMA) Building, Kochi and date is 25 Feb 2024. I tried to get rail reservation but could not. I booked my air tickets from Hyderabad to Kochi on 24 Feb and back on 26 Feb 2023.
3. The moment I landed at beautiful Kochi International Airport at 1330 hrs on 24 Feb, the driver sent to me to pick me up called me. I reached the venue at 1430 hrs. I was happy to see Mrs Heera Krishnan and one more lady waiting for me at the lobby of six storied IMA building. She told me that about eight lady members from various districts like Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Aluva, Kannur, Kozhikode, Thrissur etc have already arrived and are staying in the guest rooms (total 86 double bed rooms in IMA, Kochi). All of them arrived in next 10 mins. Till 1830 hrs we had interaction to know each other.
4. At 1830 hrs came my Defence Service Staff College Coursemate (ser no 41 of 1985) Brig Suresh Nair with his wife Mrs Maya Nair. They too interacted with all the lady members and then I was forced to go with Nairs for dinner in Naval Officers’ Institute, Kochi.

Awareness Program

Training Program

5. I was told the venue is the board room of IMA, Kochi and training program will start at 1030 to enable some of the lady members who live nearby Kochi. By 1030 hrs the hall was full. About 18 ladies attended the program. Lt Col Shagir and his wife too joined.
6. I made a presentation on (a) Pensions (b) OROP (c) SPARSH and (d) One Man Judicial Committee Report (OMJC) with the help of MS PowerPoint slides till 1300 hrs.
7. After lunch, we re-assembled at 1345 hrs and our session ended at 1600 hrs as the lady members who came from nearby districts like Thrissur have to go back.
8. Mrs Rajya Lakshmi Iyer who owns a dairy farm and whose son was Cdr 130 Inf Bde spoke how Sunday Jio Meet of SSLOG helped her to educate her daughter-in-law (first lady of 130 Inf Bde) to look after the single ladies (widows) mostly of JCOs /OR in Rajasthan. Her speech is attached. For the wonderful welfare program, the brigade initiated for such single ladies her son got nominated to National Defence College, Delhi. I urged all the lady members to attend the Sunday Jio Meet at least for 10 mins to show their faces.
9. I gave a copy of Circular 555 (pension tables of OROP-1 from Jul 2014 to Dec 2015) and Circular 666 (pension tables of OROP-II from Jul 2019 to Mar 2023) to all of them. I made them work out the pension of a Lt Col with 30.50 years of service and then work out the Ordinary Family Pension of his wife. Then I made them work out the OROP arrears from Jul 2019 to Mar 2023. They were able to do it effortlessly. I got the confidence the ladies of Kerala who are members of DSSLOG will be able to help even retired officers to know their correct pension and correct OROP arrears.

Problem Projected.

10. Mrs Elizabeth, wife of deceased Major with 27.50 years of service was given pension mistakenly by her bank for the rank of Lt Col with 27.50 years of service (instead of Major) . This is an overpayment. The lady did not know that she was getting higher pension. The bank after almost 22 years detected this mistake due to their own internal audit and served her a recovery notice of overpayment of Rs 14 lakhs and commenced deducting one third of her pension. The question posed is there any scope to stop this deduction. I told them the same problem of a lady member whose husband died and she was paid family pension of Colonel whereas he was Lt Col. I told them the judgment of Supreme Court that commissioned officers or Groups A officers and their spouse if receive over payment even if the banks have made a mistake the banks are duty bound to recover the overpayment at the rate not exceeding one-third of her family pension. I also told them that if it is underpayment, then it is not difficult to get the arrears.

Outcome.

11. Though this training program was only for few lady members, what struck me is that here in Kerala lady members took pains to travel by road and train over 4 to 6 hrs from other districts to come to Kochi (Ernakulam Dist) to attend the training program. They told me most of them knew only one lady but now they have bonded well and will indulge in mutual support with a larger group.
12. Few photos and videos taken on this occasion are attached.

Conclusion.

13. I returned to Secunderabad on 26 Feb 2024 satisfied that money spent and effort I took paid me handsomely for this training program on 25 Feb. I had dinner with my regimental officer Lt Col NJ Paul (served two tenures in my 267 Engr Regt). He was joined by Col KP Mathews (235 ER) and Mrs Mathews, Col Murali Nair (5 ER) and Mrs Nair on 25 Feb. I had lunch with Col NK Balakrishnan (26 NDA) of 7 Maratha LI on 26 Feb 2024 whom I knew since Apr 2004.

Warm Regards & Respects,
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd),
brigvidya.tsewa@gmail.com,
75695 13350