Minutes of TSEWA Core Committee Meeting held on 19th December 2018 at 143 Vayupuri Secunderabad – 500 094
The following attended:
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd) President In Chair
Col (Dr) GB Sethi (Retd) General Secretary
Lt Col G Parvatesham (Retd) Treasurer
Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd) Joint Secretary
Hony Capt B Joseph (Retd) Joint Secretary
Col VS Ramana Reddy (Retd) Member
LCol Vijay Salins (Retd) Member
Maj Bikshapathi (Retd) Member
The President welcomed all present and said that Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd) and Lt Col Ravi Chowdary (Retd) have communicated their inability to attend the meeting due to pre-occupation with personal commitments. Hony Capt B Joseph(Retd) conveyed the inability of Hony Capt MN Reddy (Retd) to attend the meeting also due to pre-occupation with personal commitments. Thereafter, he requested the General Secretary commence the proceedings with his points.
Points from General Secretary.
AFT 29: Documents have been sent to Delhi. A decision was taken to merge AFT 29 A and AFT 29 B cases as both are awaiting filing. Hence documents of AFT 29 B were despatched to Brig SKS Rana, VSM (Retd), President, Legal Division for further action in filing the case in AFT Delhi.
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Life Status of Applicants in BB2 Case: A requirement came from the Advocate, AFT Delhi that confirmation about Alive status of petitioners should be obtained from applicants. The confirmation is being obtained. Out of 153 Applicants Alive status has been confirmed by 138; 6 were no more and Documents from their NOK received for substituting their names in place of the deceased persons. There was no response from remaining and we are pursuing with them.
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Contesting Election: A well-meaning lady by name Mrs Agarwal from Gachibowli, Hyderabad visited our office and said that some popular ESM should contest coming elections and pledged her support for such candidate. The house felt TSEWA being apolitical, the matter cannot be considered.
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Donations for Charity: General Secretary lamented the slowing down of Donations for charity and felt that some out of box approach should be adopted for enhancing the inflow of Donations. President said that he has been appealing for monthly donations from members which they can do by giving standing instruction to their bankers. Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd) felt that with exemption under Sec 80 G IT Act, in our hand, we may have more donations.
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Charity Disbursement intimation to Donor: General Secretary suggested that donors will feel good if they are given an intimation about the end use put to the sum donated by them and such message may spur them to donate further. He requested Chairman Charity Division to consider this. President informed Col Nagesh Gupta (Retd) donated huge sum to Bombay Sapper Association, Kirkee. They maintain a separate account title Madhuri Sewa fund and account for all financial assistance rendred to Col Nagesh Gupta. Col Nagesh Gupta also donated Rs 3 lakhs to TSEWA and we should adopt the same method and intimate Col Nagesh Gupta of all financial assistance made from Madhuri Sewa Fund.
Action: President, Charity Div & Treasurer
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Reservist Case: General Secretary felt that the reservist case has been delayed unduly for a variety of reasons. Such delays should be brought to the minimum lest credibility of TSEWA suffers. Many reservists keep asking us as to when the case is likely to be filed. In the beginning the delay was due to non-availability of documents from the reservists as they are old and infirm. General Secretary requested Gp Capt Sastry (Retd) to expedite the filing of this case in consultation with Brig SKS Rana, VSM (Retd), President Legal Division.
Action: Gp Capt CRR Sastry
Info: All
Points from Treasurer.
Income & Expenditure: Lt Col G Parvathesam (Retd), the Treasurer said that at present we get Rs1.12 lakhs as Income from the FDs per month from the fixed deposits invested in SBI, Bhaskar Rao Nagar, Secunderabad. Our monthly expenditure is within our means due to many austerity measures instituted. Hence the financial situation is well under control.
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Exemption under Sec 80G of IT Act Application: The Income Tax authorities, Hyderabad have asked for some more documents to examine our case for grant of Sec 80(G) and those documents have been submitted on – line to the IT Authorities. Hard copies of the same were delivered recently and now we are awaiting an appointment from IT Authorities.
Action: Treasurer
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Family Pension for Younber Son of (late) Col MK Veeramani. Treasurer said that constant liaison is being maintained with Branch Manager OBC, Sikh Village, Secunderabad (PDA in the case) for an early commencement of dependent pension to younger son who is mentally retarded. Documents sought by the CPPC, OBC Gurugram have been submitted. The matter is being pursued vigorously.
Action: Treasurer
Info: All
Points from Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd), Joint Secretary
News Letter: He said that final copy of newsletter is ready for the perusal of editorial committee and once it is approved then it will be composed as per the approved lay out. He said that the Newsletter will be ready for NEC Meeting scheduled on 06 Jan 2019. Thereafter, it will be put up in TSEWA Blog for all to go through it.
Action: Gp Capt CRR Sastry
Info: All
Point from Hony Capt B Joseph, Joint Secretary.
Membership Drive at MEG Centre: Hony Capt B Joseph (Retd) informed that 105 retirees from MEG have joined TSEWA by submitting membership applications. He said that there is a large number of personnel proceeding on discharge in next three months and more members can be enrolled. The house lauded the membership drive efforts of Hony Capt B Joseph (Retd) and requested him to continue his good work.
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Awareness Camp at Bengaluru. Hony Capt B Joseph (Retd) informed that Hony Capt Michael (Retd) is associated with an ESM Organisation with 200 members in Bengaluru and requested for arranging a camp in which President TSEWA can address them. President agreed to this and requested Hony Capt Joseph to coordinate.
Action: Hony Capt B Joseph
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Points from Maj Bikshapathy.
Widows without any Documents. Maj Bikshapathy also attends ECHS Polyclinic, Secunderabad on three days in a week to help the members to submit on-line application for issue of 64 KB ECHS cars. He found that that during his work in ECHS as facilitator for on line application for 64 kb cards, he found that some of the widows do not have any document to establish their eligibility for ECHS Card. He felt that Record Office should come to their rescue. President said that if widows are having old cards, it is clear that they are family pensioners and they have misplaced their PPOs. They should take action as prescribed by the PCDA(P) Allahabad for obtaining the duplicate copy of PPO.
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Issue of Service Documents. Maj Bikshapathy informed that it will be good practice for Record Offices to issue a copy of Service Documents with extracts of all Part II Orders concerning him. The house felt that it is a good practice, but would require an order from the Service HQ.
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Advertisements for Donations. Maj Bikshapathy said that we can advertise our good work in Charity and seek donations for doing more charity. The house agreed to the suggestion, but felt that TSEWA cannot afford cost of advertising.
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Points from President.
Medicare for Ex SS Officers. President informed that Hon’ble Supreme Court ordered the Government to should provide medicare to Emergency Commissioned and Short Service Commissioned Officers who were not granted permanent commission within their existing resources as most of them are in advanced stage of life. This was as a result of Govt of India, Ministry of Defence challenging the judgment of one of the AFTs which instructed Govt of India to provide fee medicare to former ECOs and SSCOs. The Hon’ble Supreme Court gave two more month’s time to Govt of India to come out with a scheme for providing medicare to such affected Officers.
The President felt if former ECOs and SSCOs are given such free medi care, then reservists who are Sepoys without any pension also should be given such free medical facility. Reservists are also in higher age group and have got few more years to live. Their numbers are also not huge and dwindling with each passing year. Govt of India can easily provide free medicare to such reservists on humanitarian grounds. It was felt that this aspect needs to be included in our reservist case as and when it is filed in AFT Delhi.
Action : General Secretary, Brig SKS Rana, VSM (Retd).
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Increment for Pensioners who Retired on 30 June. President said that Hon’ble Madras High Court has ruled in favour of Pensioner in the matter and the appeal of Government of India in Hon’ble Supreme Court was dismissed. As the 6th CPC ruled that increment be given only in July of each year (from Jan 2006 to Dec 2015), a Central Govt pensioner who retired on 30 June was denied benefit of one increment. The Hon’ble Madras High Court felt that such pensioners were on duty till 30 Jun and retire only on 01 Jul of that year. Therefore, such pensioners are eligible to get benefit of increment in their pension.
However, in response to a question from an Hon’ble MP from Hyderabad, Minister in writing informed that Government as a policy gives benefit of a judgment only to petitioners unless ordered otherwise by the court. In this case it was a judgment in persona and hence only the Petitioner was given benefit.
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Karnataka ESM Federation. President said that Karnataka ESM Federation has expressed their desire to join the NCESMO. They were advised to contact Brig Kartar Singh (Retd), President of NCESMO for taking the matter forward.
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Including the discussion on Missing Persons in Minutes of NCESMO Meeting with RM. Mrs Damayanti Tambe, General Secretary, War Widows Association, said that she has mentioned to Hon’ble RM in her meeting in Sep 2018 about Missing Servicemen in 1971 War and this was not recorded in Minutes of TSEWA of NCESMO meeting with hon’ble RM on 27 Nov 2018. An amendment to the Minutes of Meeting of TSEWA was carried to include this issue.
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Activation of Web site. President requested Lt Col Vijay Salins (Retd), Administrator of TSEWA Website to consider activating the TSEWA Web site as it is a useful tool for communicating with the environment at large as well as the TSEWA Members. He said that this could be done only with help from an IT Specialist. He was requested to do the needful in the matter in consultation with Mr Anthony of IQM Software, Secunderabad.
Action: Lt Col Vijay Salins (Retd)
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There being no further points, the meeting was closed at 11.00am.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President, TSEWA