Minutes of Weekly Meeting of the Core Committee of TSEWA held on 22 January 2020 at 0900 hrs 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
- Lt Col VS Ramana Reddy Offg Treasurer
- Hony Capt MN Reddy President, Telangana TSEWA
- Col MJ Ganapathy Member
- Cdr Chandra Shekhar Member
- Lt Col Dr K Bhaskar Reddy Member
The President welcomed all present and thanked them for their efforts to attend the meeting. He requested the Executive Committee members and Core Committee members located in Secunderabad to spare a few hours on second and fourth Wednesday to attend this meeting. He requested the General Secretary to commence the proceedings by giving out his points.
Points from General Secretary
Item No I. Current Issues. The General Secretary spoke on following issues.
(a) Promotion of Sqn Ldr Amitav Chatterjee, President, TSEWA, Maharashtra to the Rank of Wg Cdr. Gen Secretary informed that Wg Cdr Chatterjee rang him up and informed that Air HQ has issued his promotion orders to the rank of Wg Cdr based on the judgment of AFT as he put in 21 years of total service. The Gen Secy informed that he will get a copy of judgment of AFT so that we can progress our case in AFT Delhi for Majors with 21 years’ service getting pension of Lt Col.
(b) Interaction of COAS with Veterans. Brig Kartar Singh (Retd), President, IESL and NCESMO informed that COAS desires to have a meeting with veterans and requested maximum participation of veterans is desirable. Accordingly, Core Committee directed that we must disseminate this information to all members of TSEWA located in Delhi NCR and nearby areas to attend the meeting.
(c) Fixed Medical Allowance. The General Secretary informed FMA is not authorised to those who are members of ECHS. ECHS is compulsory for those who retired from 2003. Pre – 2003 Pensioners who are desirous of becoming members of ECHS need to get a certificate from banks that they are not being paid FMA. Then only membership of ECHS is authorised.
(d) Retirement Age of Colonels Enhanced to 57 Years. A case was filed by few serving Gp Capts in AFT for enhancement of age to 57 years as Gp Capts of non – flying branches are retiring at the age of 57 years. They further contended that they are being appointed on superannuation on re-employment thereby reducing their pay and allowances whereas Gp Capts of non – flying branches are drawing much higher pay and allowances as their retirement age is 57 years. AFT has given a positive judgment. We need to monitor the action likely to be taken by Army HQ regarding the judgment of AFT for serving Colonels. IAF has already permitted Gp Capts who were from flying branch presently retiring at the age of 54 like Colonels and Capts of Navy are now permitted to retire at the age of 57 years. To avoid discrimination of same ranked officers, the AFT gave a judgment that Gp Capts of any branch will now retire at the age of 57 years. Even Gp Capts (TS) are now retiring at the age of 57 years.
(e) Reservists Case. Though TSEWA is very much concerned with case to grant minimum pension to reservists, presently our advocate is not able to proceed further as AFTs are dysfunctional.
(f) E-PPOs. A number of representation from members of TSEWA from IAF are being received to the effect that E-PPOs issued by Jt CDA (AF), Subroto Park, Delhi Cantt are defective. The pension of Pre- 2013 retirees is being worked out only by notional pay method which is not beneficial to them. They are drawing higher pension by 2.57 method. They have been advised to represent to DAV, Delhi for taking up a case with Jt CDA (AF) to make E-PPOs on the same lines of E-PPOs of Army.
There being no further points, the meeting was closed at 11.00 am.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President, TSEWA