Minutes of TSEWA Core Committee Meeting held at 0900 hrs on 26 Oct 2019 in 143, Vayupuri, Secunderabad
The following members of Core Committee of TSEWA attended the meeting to deliberate and decide on action to be taken on various issues:-
- Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd) – President, in chair
- Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd) – Vice President
- Col Dr GB Sethi (Retd) – General Secretary
- Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy (Retd) – Offg Treasurer
- Col MJ Ganapathy (Retd) – Member
- Lt Col K Bhaskar Reddy (Retd) – Member
- Lt Col N Ravi Chaudhary (Retd) – Legal Advisor
Lt Col N Sambasiva Rao (Retd) attended as a special invitee.
Points from General Secretary
Item No 1: Membership Drive. He regretted that the membership drive has slowed down considerably. Unless each of the existing members motivate others to join TSEWA, we are likely to stagnate. As on date, our membership is 12,500.
Item No 2: Visit of Maj AK Dhanapalan (Retd). The General Secretary informed that Maj AK Dhanapalan (Retd) who spearheaded the Rank Pay case because of whom RDOA went right upto Hon’ble Supreme Court and got us rank pay arrears from Jan 1985 to Dec 2005 visited our office on 24 Oct 2019. He discussed various issues affecting the veteran community. He lauded the efforts of TSEWA in addressing grievances of veteran community. He joined TSEWA as a life member.
Item No 3: Role of Presidents of TSEWA at Various Levels. The General Secretary informed that because many of the Presidents at various levels have been unable to carry out their duties, new members have been appointed as Presidents of TSEWA at various levels ranging from Districts to Zones. The list of Presidents has been made up to date and the same has been put up in TSEWA blog at www.tsewa.org. He exhorted the nominated Presidents at various levels to take up their job seriously so that TSEWA can render more service to the veteran community.
Item No 4: Legal Cases. The General Secretary took lot of pains to find out the actual state of legal cases of TSEWA. He informed that TSEWA took up so far 46 legal cases since Sep 2015. 5 cases have been won and 502 petitioners were benefited financially as they got their arrears. There are total of 4,479 petitioners in these 46 legal cases. We got OA numbers in 16 cases which are in various stages of adjudication in AFT Delhi, AFT Lucknow and AFT Jaipur. 20 cases have been handed over to our advocates in various AFTs. Some of the Regional benches of AFTs have been activated. Due to state of dysfunctionality of AFTs, our legal cases are not being progressed to our satisfaction. Only two benches in the country are functional. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has appointed retired Chief Justice of Delhi High Court as Chairman of AFTs and it is hoped very soon all the AFTs will have their full strength of judicial and administrative members. We hope to win most of the cases filed. TSEWA has not accepted any legal since last two years due to AFTs not being functional though a number of members suggested many grievances which can only be resolved by AFTs.
Item No 5: The General Secretary stated that petitioners are getting worried about the slow progress of legal cases of TSEWA. Though this is due to dysfunctional state of AFTs, the General Secretary suggested that our advocates should not too much time to file our cases in AFTs. He also suggested that 5 cases lying in office of TSEWA need to be sent to our advocates at the earliest. He therefore suggested that a special meeting be held wherein we need to go over every case and find out what action is required to be taken.
Lt Col N Ravi Choudhary, legal advisor volunteered to get the suitable date fixed after finding out convenience of Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd) Joint Secy and in charge of legal cases in HQ TSEWA.
Item No 6: NCESMO. Brig Kartar Singh (Retd) President NCESMO informed that All India ESM Association, Delhi has joined NCESMO as a member.
Item No 7: Donation. Lt Col N Sambasiva Rao (Retd) donated Rs 10,000 to TSEWA which was gratefully acknowledged.
Points from Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd), Vice President
Item No 8: Articles for Magazine Samman. He informed that articles affecting veterans not exceeding 2,000 words are solicited to be published in Naval magazine Samman. These articles are required to reach them by 30 Nov 2019. He suggested Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd) Joint Secretary who is a prolific writer to send a couple articles which are likely to be published in this prestigious magazine.
Item No 9: Jeevan Praman. Vice President informed that Govt of India has taken the initiative on seeing many super senior citizens who are to visit the bank for a number of reasons (some of them are bedridden, some are on wheel chair, some suffer from dementia etc) to give life certificate in the month of November of every year has made it very simple in the web site of Jeevan Pramaan. One has to enter his Aadhar number and the same will be checked and if found correct life certificate will be generated and the same will be sent to the bank from where the pensioner draws his monthly pension.
Points from President
Item No 10: Lt Col LM Singh (Retd), President, TSEWA North East Zone and State of Manipur. The President informed that once TSEWA was able to pay Rs 5.39 lakhs, the outstanding loan amount in just two days to Smt Zalengkim wife of (Late) Nk Damchuilung, of ASC from Manipur, Lt Col LM Singh (Retd) OiC ECHS Polyclinic, Imphal became a member of TSEWA. On the recommendation of the Core Committee, he was appointed as President TSEWA, Manipur. Our office has been receiving membership forms from Ex-Servicemen and family pensioners of Manipur every day. As on date we got 60 new members into TSEWA due to persuasion of Lt Col LM Singh (Retd). Later the Core Committee recommended that Lt Col LM Singh (Retd) be appointed as President, TSEWA, North Eastern Zone in addition to his present appointment of President, TSEWA, Manipur State. Lt Col LM Singh (Retd) took upon himself a noble task of making Manipur State Free of Single Use Plastic. He commenced by motivating staff of ECHS Polyclinic to make paper bags and supply the same to the patients who visit the polyclinic to collect their medicines. He also put up Courtesy: TSEWA on each of the paper bags. He supplies newpapers to the staff to make paper bags. TSEWA congratulates Lt Col LM Singh (Retd) for his outstanding work for TSEWA.
Item No 11: Recovery Notice Served on Smt Nayeemath Lathif wife of (late) Lt Col Abdul Lathif Vadakkayil. Lt Col Lathif, a member of TSEWA has done outstanding work in Kerala to redress grievances of ESMs and family pensioners. He attended a number of Awareness Programmes carried out by TSEWA in the Southern states since 2015. He used to visit CPPC, Syndicate Bank, Manipal to resolve grievances of pensioners whose pension was paid by that bank. He also used to be invited by a NGO in Bengaluru to resolve the problems of war widows at frequent intervals without claiming any money for his trips. Unfortunately, he passed away in Kozhikode, Kerala on 20 May 2018. The President was at his bed side from 18 to 20 May 2018 and attended his funeral.
JWO Milan Das (Retd) President, TSEWA, CPENGRAMS Div had informed the President that the SBI, Avadi, Chennai, Tamilnadu from where Smt Nayeemath draws her pension served a recovery notice on her of Rs 1,80,000 for over payment of pension. He sent details given by the bank to the President for verification. Lt Col Lathif’s date of birth is Jun 1952 and Smt Nayeemath Lathif is to get her Enhanced Rate of Ordinary Family pension as under: –
(a) 7 Years from Date of Death of Husband. This comes to 20 May 2018 + 7 = 19 May 2025.
(b) 67 Years of Age of Husband. This comes to Jun 1952 + 67 = Jun 2019.
The earlier one is taken as the last date for remittance of Enhanced Rate of Ordinary Family Pension which is same as the pension drawn by her husband when he was alive. In this case it is Jun 2019.
JWO Milan Das has been advised to inform Smt Nayeemath Lathif that the bank has made mistake in arriving at the date of remittance of Enhanced Ordinary Family Pension and there is no recovery to be made. Since the bank from where she was drawing pension was not known, she was advised to go to CPPC of the bank from where she is drawing her family pension.
Later JWO Milan Das sent a copy of PPO in which it was erroneously mentioned her Enhanced Rate will be over by Jun 2017 instead of Jun 2019. That is why the bank stopped her Enhanced Rate of pension by Jun 2017 and showed overpayment of Rs 1,80,000.
The case was taken up and PCDA (Pensions) Allahabad issued a Corr PPO amending her date of Enhanced Rate of Pension to Jun 2019. On coming to know that her bank is SBI, Avadi, Chennai, Tamilnadu, the President requested Lt Col PN Krishan (Retd) former President, TSEWA, Tamilnadu to go to CPPC, SBI and resolve this issue. Lt Col PN Krishnan immediately met the concerned person in CPPC, SBI, Chennai and the issue is almost resolved.
There being no other point, the President declared the meeting as closed.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President, TSEWA