Minutes of the TSEWA Core Committee Meeting Held on 24 October 2020
The following members attended:
- Brig CS Vidyasagar President in Chair
- Cmde Sudheer Parakala Vice President
- Col Dr GB Sethi General Secretary|
- Hony Capt Joseph Joint Secretary
- Lt Col Parvathesam Treasurer
- Col Srikantha Seshadri President, TSEWA (Karnataka )
- Hav Harish Asthana President, TSEWA (UP)
- Sub KV Subba Rao President TSEWA, Coastal Andhra
- Col LM Manongba President, TSEWA (North East India & Manipur)
- Col CAJ Swamy President, TSEWA (Andhra Pradesh)
- WO Thiruchelvam President TSEWA, Tamilnadu
- Cmde Ashok Kota Member
- Lt Col Dr K Bhaskar Reddy Member
- Maj Dr. B Bhikshapathy Member & Administrator
The virtual meeting was arranged on Google Platform due to Covid-19 pandemic and the following members of Core Committee attended:-
The President welcomed all present in the meeting and thanked them for their efforts to attend the virtual meeting. He requested the General Secretary to commence the proceedings.
Points of Discussion
Item No I. 5th Annual General Body. The General Secretary informed that the Notice of AGM to be held on 08 Nov 2020 has been sent to all the Members and the Financial Statements duly audited have been received from the Chartered Accountant have been uploaded to the Blog website.
Item No II. ESM Problems of Admission in Service Hospitals/ Empanelled Hospitals: General Secretary explained that GOC-in-C, Southern Command has been appraised about the problems faced by Veterans in Hyderabad /Secunderabad through a letter addressed to him and also through Lt Gen RK Swamy who retired as the COS of Southern Command.
Item No III. It is surprising to see a Convening Order issued by GOC-in-C appointing GOC, Dakshin Bharat Area to examine offloading of Medical Cover to Veterans and families through some Insurance Companies. There seems to be no indication that this BOO has been ordered without any reference or instructions from any higher authority or MOD.
The proposal of ECHS/Veterans Health Care system was under consideration and discussion for many years. Before the ECHS scheme was sanctioned a number of studies were carried out and ruled out as none of them were found to be viable and then only the scheme was sanctioned vide Ministry of Defence Government of India New Delhi No. 22(1)/01/US(WE)/D(Res) dated the 30 Dec, 2002.
This convening order of BOO was discussed at length. It was very clear that no insurance company can ever give required health care and it was decided to write a detailed letter to the Raksha Mantri with suggested options for providing Medical Cover to the Veterans and their families. Establishment of ECHS Hospitals, running ECHS on the lines of CGHS etc. could be suggested as TSEWA recommendations. Cmde Sudheer Parakala, Vice President was requested to put up a draft letter addressed to the RM.
Item No IV. Donations for TSEWA Office Building: The General Secretary briefed the members giving the latest position on the amount received as donations for building a permanent building to house TSEWA Office.
Item No V. TSEWA Website Work: Lt Col G Parvathesam, Treasurer informed that the Website work has commenced and requested the Core Committee to approve the draft work order put up by Major Dr. B Bhikshapathy, Coordinator of TSEWA Website work. Core Committee approved the draft work order and agreed for the 50% advance payment accordingly.
Item No VI. Legal Fees for AFT 29: The General Secretary suggested that the members should decide the modalities for payment to the Advocate for filing our AFT 29 case.
Item No VII. Reconciliation of Legal Fees paid so far: General Secretary expressed his concern about the reconciliation of legal fees paid and requested the Treasurer to prepare detailed statement regarding fees contracted, paid so far and balance to be paid against each legal case.
Item No VIII. Entitlement of Accomodation in Empanelled Hospitals for retired Haviladars (ACP I): WO Thiruchelvam has brought out the anomaly in ECHS letter discriminating the subject Havildars. Col Srikantha Seshadri has asked WO Thiruchelvam to send the PPOs of concerned Havildars, so that he can take up case with ECHS. The President opined that unless Havildars (ACPI) pay the difference in ECHS rates consequent to change in their status post ACP I, they may not be entitled to better status for allotment of semi-private rooms instead of General ward. There were cases where Hav (ACP-1) paid their contribution of NCO only but now they are required to pay the difference in the contribution between JCO and NCO as they get their pay in service of that of JCO and on retirement they get pension of JCO. Since they get pension of JCO, they should be entitled for semi-private room in empaneled hospitals as members of ECHS. Col Srikantha Seshadri was requested to obtain clarification from the ECHS MD.
Item No IX. Issue of e-PPOs. Hav Harish Asthana pointed out that PCDA(Pensions) Prayagraj is demanding LPC for issue of e-PPOs with respect to the veterans who retired 20-30 years back. It was considered that it is an absurd request because, the PAO (OR) have already submitted the LPC at the time of retirement based on which the Pensions were commenced and all of them were issued with PPO. E-PPO is based on data contained in PPO but only change is the Notional pay worked out. In any case for all those retired prior to Jan 2013, 2.57 method is more beneficial as basic pay at the time of retirement was very low and when enhanced in subsequent pay commission period with multiplication factor prevailing (for example 1.86 for 6th CPC and 2.57 for 7th CPC) their notional pay as on Jan 2016 is much lesser hence their pension by Notional pay method is lesser than pension by 2.57 method.
Item No X. Centralisation of Pension Disbursement. The Centralised Pension Disbursing System as recommended by CGDA was discussed at length. It was unanimous opinion of the Core Committee that status quo should be maintained. The widows in far flung areas will not be able to approach PCDA (Pensions) Prayagraj if they find their pension is less than what is authorized. The Vice President reiterated that a letter should be written to the Raksha Mantri directly on similaral lines as was done by the Navy Foundation Visakhapatnam Chapter to the FOC-in-C, Eastern Naval Command as the Navy Foundation has to follow the chain of Command to NHQ and then MOD. The president requested Cmde Parakala to put up a draft letter to RM with a copy endorsed to all the constituents of NCESMO.
Item No XI. Charity from Madhuri Seva Fund. The Chairman, Charity Division informed that Col Nagesh Gupta wanted a statement of Expenditure from Madhuri Seva Fund so that additional amounts could be transferred to meet the charity awards to the meritorious students. It was decided to send the details to Col Nagesh Gupta as desired.
There being no further points, the meeting was closed at 1215 hrs.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President, TSEWA