Minutes of TSEWA Core Committee Meeting on 23 November 2019 at 9.30 am 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
- Gp Capt CRR Sastry Joint Secretary
- Hony Capt B Joseph Joint Secretary
- Col MJ Ganpathy Member
- Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy Member
- Maj B Bikshapathy Member
- Col K Bhaskar Reddy Member
- Cmde Ashok Kota Member
- Hony Fg Offr AV Reddy Member
- Lt Col Ravi Chowdary in Attendance
The President welcomed all present and thanked them for their efforts to attend the meeting. He requested the EC and Core Committee members to spare a few hours on Saturday to attend this meeting. He requested the General Secretary to commence the proceedings by speaking on his points.
Points from General Secretary
Item I. Agenda for the forthcoming NEC. The General Secretary said that the draft agenda as discussed was circulated among members and points for inclusion were sought. No suggestions were received. The finalised Agenda was circulated to all.
Info: All
Item II. Arrangements for NEC.
- Accommodation for Out station members attending NEC. The General Secretary mentioned that about two to three Officers have indicated the possible attendance for the NEC and two JCOs have made plans. Hence it was decided that two rooms should be booked in Oasis and one room to be booked in a hotel near to Sainikpuri.
- Social Evening on day prior to NEC Meet. The General Secretary said that it will be a good opportunity for Hyderabad based NEC Members to interact with all outstation members and it will facilitate informal exchange of views on issues of interest to the ESM in general and of members of ECHS in particular. It was understood that the meeting place (Lounge) of Sainikpuri Association may be available for that day and catering arrangements can be made for dinner. It was decided that Lounge of Sainikpuri Association be booked for the Social Evening on 21 December 2019.
Action: Maj Bikshapathy & Gp Capt CRR Sastry
Points from President, Charity Division
Item III. Availability of funds for Charity for QE December 2019. Cmde Sudheer Parakala President Charity Div. said that Rs 4.35 lakhs has been spent for charity and requested the treasurer to indicate the amount that will be available for Charity. The acting treasurer outlined the income and expenditure of TSEWA as on date and what income and expenditure can be anticipated till 31 March 2020. From the narrative of the acting treasurer, it was clear that no fund can be spared for Charity except for Rs 3.5 lakhs remaining from the contributions received for Smt Zalengkim, wife of (late) Nk Damchuilung of ASC. During the discussions, it was apparent that the present Corpus of TSEWA (Rs 2.5 Cr) will yield Rs 15.00 lakhs and the present expenditure for maintenance of Office and salaries of staff will be about Rs 12 lakhs. The remainder Rs 3.00 lakhs will be required for activities of TSEWA like awareness programmes and travel of President etc. Hence no funds can be spared from the interest derived from the corpus for Charity till March 2020 except for Rs 3.5lakhs. It was suggested to the house that the amount of Rs 3.5 lakhs should be spent exclusively for charity purposes in the next two to three quarters. The present bank deposits of Rs 2.5 Cr do not constitute the corpus of TSEWA which will continue to yield interest income on a perpetual basis. Almost Rs 2.0 Cr of the deposits is the legal fee held in trust for facilitating the legal cases by paying to the advocates. Thus, there is a need for a exclusive Corpus whose interest income would be meant for Charity activities. As the response of members for donations for Charity has been very encouraging, it was suggested that TSEWA should build a Corpus of at least Rs 1.00 Cr meant exclusively for Charity so that a sum of Rs 6 lakhs will be always available for Charity. This can be augmented with any amount remaining from the revenue income after meeting expenses of TSEWA. The house approved the suggestion and requested the President TSEWA to make an appeal to all members of TSEWA at an appropriate to donate liberally so that a Corpus of Rs 1.00 Cr. Hence the following decisions were made.
a. The sum of Rs 3.5 lakhs available out of contributions received for Smt Zalengkim, should be used exclusively for Charity in the next two to three quarters.
Action: Treasurer & President Charity Div
b. President TSEWA is requested to make an appeal to all members of TSEWA to donate generously for the Charity Corpus of TSEWA so that a substantial amount is available on a perpetual basis for Charitable activities.
Action: President, TSEWA
Points from President
Item No IV. Attendance of President in meeting of stake holders with CGDA on OROP Tables. President said that Brig Kartar Singh President of IESL and NCESMO met Shri Rajnath Singh RM and appraised him about the serious concern of ESM fraternity that OROP tables were prepared by the CGDA without any consultations with stake holders. On this RM directed the CGDA to meet delegation of stake holders from IESL and give a hearing to their concerns. Brig Kartar Singh has insisted that President TSEWA should also attend this meeting. Initially the meeting was scheduled to be held on 2nd December 2019, but due to some urgent preoccupation, it was rescheduled to be held on 9th or 16th of December 2019. Brig CS Vidyasagar was of the view that some knowledgeable Veteran from Delhi should attend this meeting so that travel expenses can be saved. The house was of the view that if Brig CS Vidyasagar attends this meeting, TSEWA will get huge exposure and the interests of ESM Community will be served best served. The house therefore requested the President to attend the meeting as and when it is convened and approved the travel expenditure necessary for this.
Action: President, TSEWA Info: All
Item No V. Tardy Progress of Legal Cases. General Secretary recalled the discussion during the last Core Committee meeting and called upon Gp Capt CRR Sastry to apprise the house about the study conducted by him on the subject in conjunction with Col Ravi Chowdary. The briefing to the house was conducted on following aspects:
a. Slow Progress on the cases under adjudication by the AFT. He said that once the case is filed in AFT, the counsel has no control on the progress. However, if a case is getting delayed unduly for long time, the possibility if the court can be requested for early disposal through an MA or urgent mention may be considered by the Counsel. We may request Brig SKS Rana to explore this aspect with the Counsels.
Action : Brig SKS Rana
b. Delay in Filing of Cases. The delay in a number of cases is due to observations raised by the Counsels calling for rectifications and submission of additional information/documents. There is a delay in receipt of additional information/documents from many members. The Counsel may be advised to file OAs in respect of members who have submitted the additional information/documents and we need to pursue with other members to hasten the submission of the additional information/documents.
Action : Gp Capt CRR Sastry
c. Undue delay of Cases awaiting Filing. These cases are mostly additional batches of cases already filed like AFT 1 B and C and 6 B etc. These are kept pending as the Counsel is hopeful of getting a rem judgment in the cases already under adjudication and the counsel is not inclined to file repeat cases before the judgment is delivered in present cases. We may await the judgment in AFT 1 and AFT 6 and take a call there after. On remaining cases a case by case discussion may be done during the forthcoming NEC meeting and decision taken to continue them or close them.
Action : Gp Capt CRR Sastry
d. Dysfunctional state of AFT. Gp Capt CRR Sastry said that the present dysfunctional state of AFT is because of non-appointment of members as the Appellate Tribunals and other authorities (Qualification, Experience and other Conditions of Service of Members) Rules 2017 contained in Finance Act 2017 were challenged in Supreme Court vide Rojer Mathew vs UoI CA 8588 of 2019. These rules were struck down by the SC and Interim Relief was granted enabling the Govt to appoint members as per old rules. This gives us the hope that MoD would appoint the Judicial and Administrative members in an expeditious manner. Hence, it was decided that we may observe the situation for three months before filing any PIL in Supreme Court on the matter.
Info: All
There being no other points the meeting was closed at 11.00h.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President