Minutes of TSEWA Core Committee Meeting held on 06 February 2019 at 143, Vayupuri, Secunderabad – 500 094
The following attended:
- Brig CS Vidyasagar President in Chair
- Cmde Sudheer Parakala Vice President
- Col Dr GB Sethi General Secretary
- Col G Parvathesam Treasurer
- Gp Capt CRR Sastry Jt Secretary
- Hony Capt B Joseph Jt Secretary
- Col MJ Ganapathy Member
- Col VS Ramana Reddy Member
- Maj B Bikshapathy Member
- Hony Capt MN Reddy Member
- Cmde Ashok Kota Member
- Col AP Gupta Member
The President welcomed all present and thanked them for their efforts to attend the meeting. He requested the General Secretary to commence the proceedings by giving out his points.
General Secretary’s Points.
Withdrawal of Advocate AFT Jaipur: General Secretary informed that our advocate in AFT Jaipur has intimated that he wants to withdraw from the work of TSEWA cases apparently due to alleged criticism by a member who joined the case. On persuasion of the President, he agreed for continuation of his association with TSEWA cases and has intimated that a case will be filed in the next week.
Criticism about NCESMO from prominent TSEWA Members: General Secretary said that certain aspects of NCESMO are being highlighted in a poor manner and was apprehensive of the bad publicity that is likely to accrue to TSEWA. He said that such discussions should not be made in emails. Gp Capt CRR Sastry said that the NCESMO matters should be kept completely out of TSEWA mails. President then conveyed the opinion of the house to the concerned members who were critical of NCESMO.
Persons with Disabilities Act (PWD) Benefits: General Secretary said that members of TSEWA are inquiring about benefits of PWD Act to Veterans. Gp Capt CRR Sastry gave out the legal position that PWD Act is not applicable to Armed Forces and as such the protection contained in the PWD Act are not available to the members of Armed Forces and consequently to the ESM in so far as their service in the Armed Forces is concerned.
Exemption Under Sec 80G of IT Act: General Secretary informed that the documents in the matter were submitted in physical form to concerned Authorities in the IT Department. The Treasurer said that our Auditor has been requested to expedite the case so that we can obtain the necessary exemption during this financial year itself.
Final List of TSEWA Functionaries. General Secretary said that the Blog is being updated and the list of functionaries at various levels working for TSEWA should be reviewed for accuracy. The same was done and forwarded for updating the TSEWA Blog.
Treasurer’s Point
Item No VI. Exemption Under Sec 80G of IT Act: Treasurer informed that efforts will be made with IT Authorities to get an early appointment for hearing in the matter.
Cmde Sudheer Parakala, Vice-President.
NFFU: The Vice President informed that the positive judgment of SC in NFFU case in CAPF case has made the position of Armed Forces Officers very strong and hoped that we will get justice in the next hearing of the case.
Enhanced Family Pension for Widows after 7 years: The Vice President said that we will be hard pressed to justify a demand which is over and above what is applicable to the Civil Servants unless we can substantiate the claim that ESM die prematurely compared to Civil Servants. He said that we should access the data on death of ESM if available in public domain. The President informed that there are few widows who lost their husbands prematurely before they reached middle age of 50 years. The widow gets only Enhanced Rate of Ordinary Family Pension for just seven years and is unable to give decent quality of life as they are still young. Whereas most of civilians retire at the age of 60 years and their widows enjoy Enhanced Rate of Ordinary Family Pension for next seven enhanced to 10 years w.e.f. Jan 2006.
Maj Bikshapath.
Documenting the Activities of our Members: Maj Bikshapathy said that many active members of TSEWA like Brig SKS Rana, VSM (Retd) Col AK Rana (Retd), Col Raghbir Singh (Retd), Col Srikantha Seshadri (Retd) and many more officers, Hav Harish Asthana, H F O A Venkata Reddy, JWO Milan Das, Sub K Subba Rao and other office bearers of TSEWA do commendable jobs to redress grievances of our community members. It is very essential for TSEWA to record them for posterity. But their work is not getting adequate attention as it is not being documented. Lt Col Parvathesam (Retd) informed that such efforts are chronicled in our News Letters. Maj Bikshapathy said that he will assist in documentation of such efforts.
The President complimented Maj Bhikshapathy and requested all office bearers in States and UTs to kindly send a quarterly report of their achievements to General Secretary so that we can maintain proper documentation of our efforts in ameliorating the condition of ESMs and family pensioners.
President’s Point.
Remedies to be exhausted: The President informed that an ESM Advocate from Kerala has been speaking about a Judgment of AFT Bench in the matter and said that large ESM Organisations like TSEWA should file a petition in the matter. Gp Capt CRR Sastry said that this a requirement provided in the AFT Act itself and any OA in the matter is unlikely to get us any relief. Persons who approach the AFT must first exhaust the remedies that are available to them and then present their OAs to the AFT. It is also mentioned that this requirement is mostly for the serving soldiers to whom some remedies like judgments of GCMs, SCMs and not being selected for higher ranks etc is available. But no such redressal mechanism is available for ESMs and hence veterans should not worry much on this score. However, petitioners of legal cases need to adhere to the requirements of AFT once hearings commence. General Secretary communicates to all petitioners with available means like e-mails, bulk SMSs and telephone calls. Many a time our petitioners do not furnish such additional requirements sought by AFTs which delay our cases unduly. Therefore all petitioners are requested to act upon on such requirements on urgent basis.
There being no other points, the meeting was closed at about 1130h.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President, TSEWA