Minutes of Meeting of Core Committee of TSEWA at 0900 hrs on 07 Sep 2019 held in 143,Vayupuri, Secunderabad
The following attended the meeting:-
- Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd) – President, in Chair
- Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd) – Vice – President
- Col Dr GB Sethi (Retd) – General Secretary
- Lt Col G Parvathesam (Retd) – Treasurer
- Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd) – Joint Secretary
- Hony B Joseph (Retd) – Joint Secretary
- Hony MN Reddy (Retd) – President, TSEWA, Telangana
- Col MJ Ganapathy(Retd) – Member
- Col N Sitaramaiah (Retd) – Member
- Lt Col Vijay Salins (Retd) – Member
- Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy(Retd) – Member
- Lt Col N Ravi Choudhary (Retd) – Legal Advisor
- Smt Rekha Sekhri (Retd) – Administrator,TSEWA Blog
The President welcomed all members to the Core Committee meeting. He thanked them for sparing their valuable time to attend the meeting to give suggestions / vews / recommendations to strengthen TSEWA. He thereafter requested General Secretary to give his points.
Points from General Secretary
Item No 1: Meeting in the Office of Deputy Commandant, I EME Centre, Secunderabad. A team from TSEWA comprising of Col Dr GB Sethi, General Secretary, Gp Capt CRR Sastry, Joint Secretary, Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy and Lt Col N Ravi Choudhary at the request of Commandant 1 EME Centre attended a meeting to resolve the issue of some JCOs / NCOs of EME suffering huge recoveries at the time of their retirement as they did not furnish the option certificate to go from previous CPC to next CPC (5th CPC to 6th CPC). The meeting was attended by Col Records, EME and reps of PAO (OR). The reasons for recovery were not explained.
Decision of Core Committee. It appears that PAO (OR) do not want to admit their mistake of effecting recovery from some of the JCOs / NCOs who did not furnish the option certificate to move on to next CPC scales of pay or those who submitted the option certificate after last date of submission. Therefore, the onus to get the details of recovery is on the petitioners of AFT – 20. All of them are given Final Statement of Account (FSA) in which the recovery is mentioned. TSEWA office should write to all the petitioners of AFT – 20 to submit their copy of FSA. If they fail to submit then their names be taken off from the list of petitioners of AFT – 20 and their legal fees be refunded. The advocate in AFT Delhi has sought how much recovery has been made from each of the petitioners.
Decision of Core Committee. The TSEWA office should write to all the petitioners to submit their FSA and also send SMS to some of them who do not have email id. Also the Office staff should speak to each of the petitioners and explain the requirement of sending FSA to TSEWA Office as the case is inordinately delayed for want of amount of recovery made.
Item No 2: Donations. The General Secretary informed the flow of donations has come to a grinding halt. With donations received from members, TSEWA is able to carry out charity activities to help out Ex-Servicemen (ESM) and family pensioners in penury.
Decision of Core Committee. The Core Committee directed the President to sensitize the members to donate one time a year contribution or monthly remittance so that our corpus also builds up and we are able to carry out charitable activities.
Item No 3: Operationalisation of TSEWA Trust. The General Secretary informed that TSEWA trust which is registered needs to be operationalized. He suggested 21 Sep 2019 be fixed for the members of Trust to assemble and review how to operationalize the Trust.
Decision of Core Committee. The Core Committee authorized General Secretary to convene the meeting of TSEWA Trust on 21 Sep 2019.
Points from Lt Col G Parvathesam, Treasurer
Item No 4: Filing of ITR for Fin yr 2019 – 20. The Treasurer informed that our Chartered Accountant has filed the income tax return (ITR) for the fin yr 2019 – 20 well before extended due date of 31 Aug 2019.
Item No 5: Refund of Legal Fees. He informed that he gets requests from some of the petitioners for withdrawing from the legal cases. Once he gets confirmation from legal advisor that he was a petitioner, his legal fees is refunded after deducting administrative charges.
Points from Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd),Vice-President:
Item No 6: Reminders to Presidents of All Levels. On confirmation from Treasurer that budget of Rs 80,000 is available for charity for quarter ending Sep 2019, he has reminded Presidents at all levels of TSEWA (Zones, States, Districts and Metros) to send proposal for rendering financial assistance duly supported by documents confirming that the person is in penury and needs financial assistance at the earliest. But it is regretted to note none of the Presidents sent even one proposal.
Decision of Core Committee. In case no proposal is received from Presidents at all levels, the budget be carried forward to next quarter ending Dec 2019.
Points from Col N Sitaramaiah
Item No 7: Financial Assistance to a widow of a NCO of ASC in Manipur. He informed that his course mate Lt Col LM Singh, OiC ECHS Polyclinic, Imphal informed him that a widow by name Smt Zalengkim wife of (late) Nk Damchuilung, ASC of Manipur is in debt trap. He narrated that the NCO got discharged from Army in Jun 2013. After some time he was detected of stomach cancer. He was admitted in Govt hospital and his wife has to spend lot of money on purchase of costly cancer drugs. In spite of spending lot of money of cancer drugs, the NCO died in Nov 2013 i.e. after five months. Balance money was taken away by her in – laws. She is from an interior village of Tamenglong Dist of Manipur.
After some time the village elders and in – laws forced her to erect a memorial stone for her deceased husband and host a meal for all the villagers as per the tribal customs. She expressed her inability to do so as she does not have money. They forced her to take loan of Rs 4 lakhs from the money lender at exorbitant rate of interest. She pays Rs 12,000 pm from her ordinary family pension. The money lender has taken away her ATM card and pension documents.
Smt Zalengkim was forced out of her in-laws’ place and has to take shelter in her father’s house in a different village. The large family comprising of her old aged father, old aged mother, two elder brothers, one elder sister who is a psychiatric patient with two children and her own two daughters were all dependent upon her pension of Rs 5,000 (after paying Rs 12,000 pm as interest to the money lender).
She got a job as Safai in ECHS Polyclinic, Imphal in 2016. As if the troubles are not over, her eldest brother aged above 40 years suffered serious illness. She being the only earning member (due to her pension and salary from ECHS Polyclinic) was forced to take loan of Rs 75,000 from SBI, Mantriphukri branch, Imphal paying EMI of Rs 5000 pm. This leaves very little money to support a big family.
She has one more elder brother who is 38 years old and un-married. He works as labourer and earns daily wages of Rs 300 per day. He gets employment only two or three days in a week in the under-developed state of Manipur.
Her employment with ECHS Polyclinic got over by 07 Sep 2019 as another widow of a battle casualty has to be employed in her place. Now Smt Zalengkim does not have a job and her family pension of Rs 17,000 goes towards payment of interest. Therefore, Lt Col LM Singh(Retd) who came to know of the financial distress of Smt Zalengkim only on the day of her farewell requested his own course mates to help this lady to come out of her financial distress being a widow of a NCO of ASC.
Col N Sitaramaiah (Retd) suggested that charity div to kindly consider her case and remit whatever financial assistance to her through Lt Col LM Singh (Retd)
Cmde Sudheer Parkala, Vice – President & President of Charity Div after taking concurrence of two other members of Charity div i.e. Gp Capt CRR Sastry and Hony Capt B Joseph immediately approved financial assistance of Rs 25,000 to Smt Zalengkim.
Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd), Joint Secretary after hearing the lengthy narration suggested that TSEWA take action as it was done for Capt Vijendra Singh Gurung as it is a fit case. He opined unless the entire loan is cleared, she will be in debt trap till she dies. Since she is the only earning member of a big family comprising of nine members, TSEWA should pull out of her debt trap. Members of TSEWA have large heart and they will definitely heed to request if the President of TSEWA makes such an appeal and send their valuable contributions.
Decision of the Core Committee. The Core Committee felt that financial assistance of Rs 25,000 from Charity Div is not adequate. The President TSEWA should request members of TSEWA to send donations to TSEWA get Smt Zalengkim out of debt trap.
Item No 8. Few ESM Associations have come forward to form Telanagana Confederation of ESM Organisations after the same was formed in Andhra Pradesh. It is recommended TSEWA takes lead and form the Telangana State Confederation as it was done for Andhra Pradesh. For this purpose it is was suggested that a meeting be held in the office of TSEWA. Some of the district ESM Associations who attended the Core Committee meeting recommended that 21 Sep 2019 as the suitable date for formation of Telangana State Federation.
Decision of the Core Committee. The Core Committee approved TSEWA taking initiative in formation of Telangana State Confederation of ESM Organisations as it was done for Andhra Pradesh. A meeting be called for on 21 Sep 2019 when few district ESM Associations elect to form Telangana State Confederation. Once these district come under umbrella of Telangana State Confederation, they can elect President, Vice President and General Secretary.
Points from Lt Col N Ravi Choudhary, Legal Advisor
Item No 9: Issue of Legal Notice for HNS – 2. He got few petitioners who are members of TSEWA from states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamilnadu approached him for getting pension of Nb Sub. They all retired in the rank of Hony Nb Sub before Jan 2006 and are denied benefit of pension of Nb Sub given to Post Jan 2006 Hony Nb Subs. There is a vast difference in pension between Hony Nb Sub and Nb Sub. Just because they retired prior to Jan 2006, they are denied the benefit of pension of Nb Sub. He has issued legal notice and after 30 days, he will file the case in AFT Chennai. Unfortunately, AFT Chennai is non-functional as there are no members of AFT appointed after the last lot got retired.
Point from Hony Capt B Joseph, Joint Secretary
Item No 10 : Meeting of Madras Sappers of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram. He informed about 350 Madras Sappers are assembling in Thiruvananthapuram on 10 & 11 Sep 2019. He sought permission of Core Committee for him and Hony Capt MN Reddy to attend the same as he is hopeful of getting large number of ESMs and family pensioners as members of TSEWA.
Decision of the Core Committee. Core Committee approved Hony Capt B Joseph and Hony Capt MN Reddy to attend the Madras Sappers’ meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on 10 & 11 Sep 2019.
Points from the President
Item No 11. OMJC Report is Delinked from Deliberations of the Committee to Implement OROP – 2018. President, TSEWA informed Air Mshl Sharad Savur obtained through RTI Act 2005 from Ministry of Defence on OROP – 2018 149 pages of noting sheets of CGDA and Min of Def (ESW). The noting sheets inform that the committee constituted by Min of Def with CGDA as chairman to work out modality of OROP – 2018 will NOT take into consideration of One Man Judicial Committee report of Justice L Narasimha Reddy as Min of Def has not given their decision on implementation of OMJC report.
There being no other points, the President declared the meeting of the Core Committee as closed.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President, TSEWA