Minutes of TSEWA Executive Committee Meeting held on 29 November 2018 at 143 Vayupuri, Secunderabad
The following attended
(a) Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd) President in Chair
(b) Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd)
(c) Col (Dr) GB Sethi (Retd)
(d) Lt Col G Parvatesam (Retd)
(e) Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd)
(f) Col MJ Ganapathy (Retd)
(g) Lt Col RR Sekhri (Retd)
(h) Maj B Bikshapathi (Retd)
(j) H/Capt B Joseph (Retd)
(k) H/Capt MN Reddy(Retd)
(l) Mrs Rekha Sekhri (Retd) In Attendance
(m) Lt Col N Ravi Chowdary (Retd) In Attendance
The President welcomed all present and expressed his pleasure on good attendance in the meeting. He said that the Meeting of NCESMO delegates with Hon’ble Raksha Mantri went off very well and the expenditure incurred by the TSEWA for travel of the President and Vice President for attending the meeting is very well spent. The trip was utilised to meet the Advocates in Jaipur and Delhi. He later went on covering each event of his trip to Jaipur and Delhi in a comprehensive manner.
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Meeting with Advocate at Jaipur: President gave details of service and academic background of Col Satya Bhan Singh (Retd) who is a practising Advocate in AFT Jaipur and the Principal Bench at New Delhi and said that he is a learned advocate with flourishing practice. He is assisted by his daughter, an Ex- Short Service Commissioned Officer who put in 10 years’ service who is an advocate practising in Hon’ble Jaipur High court as well as AFT Jaipur. Col SB Singh said that AFT RB at Jaipur is non-functional as the position of Administrative Member is vacant and lack of Coram precludes the functioning of Bench. However, he has accepted our request to file cases facilitated by TSEWA and said that he will file cases of applicants who reside in Rajasthan. He was handed over three cases as under:
(a) MSP for all Officers who were in Service as on 1st January 2006.
(b) MACP for all JCOs/ORs who retired before 2006.
(c) Pensioners with Acting Ranks should get the Pension of Rank held and not the substantive rank irrespective of the duration for which such acting rank was held.
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Meeting with Brig AK Srivastava, VSM (Retd), Advocate AFT PB New Delhi: The President and Cmde Sudheer Parakala met the Advocate along with Brig SKS Rana President VSM (Retd), President, Legal Division of TSEWA. During the meeting Brig Srivastava said that of late AFT has been discouraging the Joint Applications citing various reasons. It also appears that other Advocates practising in AFT PB are feeling deprived as the system of Joint Applications is eating into their practice and hence, they are complaining. A list of Cases which are awaiting filing in AFT PB was handed over to Brig SKS Rana and Brig Srivastava for reconciliation.
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Meeting with Col RK Tripathi (Retd), Advocate: The meeting could not take place due to non-availability of the advocate and Brig SKS Rana was requested to convey our concerns to the Advocate.
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Professional Commitments of Brig SKS Rana: Brig SKS Rana during our interaction gave the news that he is being promoted as Director of his Company and the higher slot comes with increased responsibilities leaving very little time to devote for causes like TSEWA. He suggested that Col Ajit Singh Rana (Retd) President, North Zone, TSEWA be entrusted with the responsibility of liaising with Advocates. The house agreed with his suggestion, but felt that TSEWA would continue to need the guiding hand of Brig SKS Rana for its core activity of facilitating cases before the AFT and requested him to spare what ever time he can for our cause.
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Preliminary Meeting at IESL Office: On 27th Nov 18 this meeting took place at the IESL Office at 9, Nyaya Marg, New Delhi and the Agenda Items forwarded to Ministry of Defence were discussed so that all participants are aware of the concerns being flagged with the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri. Then the Participant most knowledgeable/affected was requested to speak on the item so that all or most participants get to voice their concerns. During the meeting it was noted that in spite of email intimation and telephonic follow up no JCO/NCO joined the meeting probably due to inadequate notice.
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Meeting with Hon’ble RM at her South Block Office: The Delegation of NCESMO consisting of 9 participants attended the meeting. Joint Secretary of DESW along with a Director and three Under Secretaries represented the Ministry of Defence. Brig Kartar Singh (Retd), President, NCESMO, gave a detailed description of proceedings of the meeting and gave details of Agenda points discussed. He said that the Hon’ble RM was earnest and keen in solving the difficulties of Soldiers. The house congratulated the NCESMO leadership and lauded the efforts of Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd) and Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd) to make the meeting happen and successful. A detailed minutes of the meeting giving each of the agenda points is put up in TSEWA blog at https://www.tsewa.org. All are requested to go through the contents. It is hoped by the time of next meeting to be held after a quarter, some of the decisions of the Government of India would be announced and implementation orders would be issued.
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Points from General Secretary
He expressed that delay in filing the cases continues to be a concern. He also said that we should prevail upon Brig SKS Rana (Retd) to continue as President Legal Division and take assistance of Col Ajit Singh Rana to conserve his time.
NEC Meeting in December ’18: Conduct of the event was discussed and it was decided that the meeting will be held on 6th January 2019. General Secretary said that notice as well as agenda will be issued shortly.
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Points from Treasurer
Exemption under S. 80G of IT Act: Lt Col Parvatesam, Treasurer said that all Documents pertaining to Exemption under Sec 80 (G) have been filed and are under active consideration of the IT Authorities. It is expected that the matter will come up for hearing during Jan 2019.
Bhadrachalam Case: It is understood that the cheque Book for the wife of Sepoy Veeraiah of 17 Kumaon who is found missing since long time has been issued due to persistent effort of Hony Capt B Joseph, Joint Secretary. She will issue a cancelled cheque to AGIF to get her insurance benefits. Thereafter action will be initiated with PCDA(Pensions) Allahabad for starting family Pension.
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Points from Cmde Sudheer Parakala, Vice President
Minutes of Meeting of NCESMO with Hon’ble Raksha Mantri: Cmde Sudheer Parakala, Vice President, TSEWA suggested that a comprehensive brief on the proceedings of the RM’s meeting with delegation of NCESMO be compiled and posted on TSEWA Blog and web site. Further it was decided that a bulk SMS be sent to all members about this.
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Points from Gp Capt CRR Sastry, Joint Secretary
Write Up on Meeting of NCESMO with Hon’ble Raksha Mantri: Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd) suggested that we send a news report on the meeting of NCESMO with Hon’ble Raksha Mantri to the Fauji Magazine as well as Sainik Samachar. This was agreed to.
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Points from the President.
He informed that best person to represent the grievances of ESM in the forthcoming meeting of NCESMO with Hon’ble Raskha mantri should represent TSEWA. He stated Cmde Sudheer Parakala, the author of Approach Paper on NCESMO is the right choice. He is able to put across agenda points given to him on 27 Nov meeting with Hon’ble Raksha Mantri. President informed that he is unable to spare time to visit Delhi constantly due to his domestic responsibilities and other commitments. He therefore sent a letter to President, NCESMO that TSEWA henceforth will be represented by Cmde Sudheer Parakala, Vice – President in the meetings of NCESMO with Hon’ble Raksha Mantri.
TSEWA Blog: The President complimented Smt Rekha Sekhri, Administrator of TSEWA Blog for her stupendous contribution to TSEWA. The TSEWA blog has become one of the most popular blogs to the ESM community. It crossed the coveted land mark of one million hits in just less than two years. The President told Smt Rekha Sekhri that she is competent to decide what is good for TSEWA blog in terms of memory space etc and money should not be the criterion. TSEWA blog has got lot of mileage for TSEWA in communicating the activities undertaken by which the membership is growing. Since Smt Rekha Sekhri knows the availability of funds with TSEWA, she is permitted to enhance size of articles to be put up in TSEWA blog if required by making higher annual fees with Hosting Raja, the company which puts up the TSEWA blog in public domain.
There being no further points the meeting was closed at 11.30h.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President, TSEWA