Minutes of the Virtual Meeting of the TSEWA National Executive Committee held at 1000 hrs on 13 November 2021
Attendance
The meeting was attended by the following :-
- Cmde Sudheer Parakala President, in Chair
- Brig CS Vidyasagar Chief Mentor, TSEWA
- Lt Col G Parvathesam General Secretary
- Lt Col VC Salins Treasurer
- Cdr Chandra Shekhar Joint Secretary
- Cmde Ashok Kota President TSEWA, South Zone
- Maj Gen SN Mukherjee President TSEWA, East Zone
- Col Ajit Singh Rana President TSEWA, North Zone
- WO Thiruchelvam President TSEWA, Tamilnadu
- Cmde KS Sandhu President TSEWA, West Zone
- Col Srikantha Seshadri President TSEWA, Karnataka
- Lt Col LM Singh President TSEWA, North East
- Maj Dr. B Bhikshapathy Member
- Lt Col VRRS Ramana Reddy Member
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.
Item No.1. TSEWA ISO Certification: The General Secretary informed that renewal of ISO Certification of TSEWA is completed and the fresh certificate valid for three years is received in the office.
Item No.2. Condolences: The NEC expressed its deepest condolences to Cdr Chandra Shekhar on untimely demise of his wife on 09 October 2021. May God help him and give him the strength to bear the loss of his life partner.
Item No.3. Change of NEC Members: The President explained that the Apex Body, The National Executive Committee can have a maximum of 26 Members and it should include the seven-member Management Committee and the six newly formed Zonal Presidents. This has necessitated some of the members of the old NEC to be rested on health grounds and non-availability, to accommodate the new members. The NEC approved induction of the following Members into the NEC:
- Col N Sitaramaiah – Vice President, TSEWA
- Brig RS Rawat, VSM – President TSEWA, Central Zone
- Lt Col LM Singh – President TSEWA, NE Zone
- Brig Suresh Nair – President, TSEWA Kerala State
- Hav Janendra Kumar Sahoo – Helpline Warrior
Item No.4. Broadbanding of Disability Pension: The President explained that in accordance with the Chairperson, AFT (PB) order dated 01 Dec 2017, the arrears can’t be restricted to three years preceding filing of the case. The salient points of the judgement are:
(a) Armed Forces Personnel who have been invalided/superannuated/completed terms of service/discharge under normal circumstances with disability pre or post 1.1.1996 will be entitled to arrears of Broad-banding w.e.f. 1.1.1996 and those retired after 1.1.1996 will be entitled to arrears w.e.f. date of retirement.
(b) Personnel who have taken pre-mature retirement will be entitled to arrears w.e.f. 1.1.2006 when it was accepted by the Govt or date of retirement whichever is later.
(c) There will be no restriction of three years for payment of arrears for the above categories
(d) The limitation of three years for payment of arrears will be applicable only for those who got benefit of disability element (Not sanctioned by medical Boards before Discharge) by intervention of courts of Law
However, due to the stay order issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, we have to file an interjection case for each affected Veteran individually in HSC. The concessional fee is being worked out with the Senior Counsel at HSC and detailed mail for the first 103 members of BB-1 Case would be promulgated shortly.
Item No 5. Empanelment of new Advocates for TSEWA: The President explained the need for empanelment of fresh advocates in major metros to overcome the congestion in AFT (PB). The President requested the Zonal and State Presidents to go by the guidelines issued on the subject and send their recommendations to TSEWA HQ.
Item No 6. Creation of Whatsapp Groups of TSEWA members: The President requested all Zonal Presidents to activate WhatsApp groups in their respective areas by 31 December 21 as decided in earlier NEC meeting. Maj Gen SN Mukherjee and Cmde KS Sandhu explained the activities carried out by them in this regard which was well appreciated by the NEC. Cmde KS Sandhu, President TSEWA, West Zone recommended that COL KP Singh of Ahemdabad be appointed as the President TSEWA, Gujarat State in place of Late Lt Col Gohil and that the data base of Major Metros like Pune, Nagapur and other Major Metros may be sent to him for completing the WhatsApp Communication network.
Item No 7. Calculation of Pension by Notional Pay Method: Brig CS Vidyasagar explained the methods of calculating the pension by Notional Pay Method and Fitment Factor method. He has concluded that although most of the pensioners, who got OROP, will be benefited by the Fitment Factor Method, there may be few such pensioners who may get more benefit by Notional Pay Method and explained the case of Hony SM Purushotham in this regard as an example. He suggested all Pensioners to calculate their pension by both the methods using PCDA circulars 555,608,651 etc. Sample calculations have been sent to members of TSEWA google group by mail. The NEC expressed its appreciation and gratefulness to Brig CS Vidyasagar for the pains he has taken for calculation and explanation of the pension calculating methods.
Item No 8. TSEWA Awareness Workshop at Roorkee: Brig CS Vidyasagar, Chief Mentor TSEWA suggested that the record offices who were required to work-out the pensions of Veterans based on Fitment Factor Method and Notional Pay Method have not been able to complete the activity to establish which of the two above methods are beneficial to each individual, due to their own commitments to the serving personnel. He therefore recommended that Maj Gen Mukherjee who was ex-Commandant, CRC, Roorkee, speak to the present Commandants of the Record Offices and offer a workshop to be conducted by the Chief Mentor and the President TSEWA. The NEC accepted the above proposal and requested Maj Gen SN Mukherjee to do the needful and fix up the workshop dates on mutually convenient dates and that he should also form part of the team.
There being no further points, the meeting was closed at 12:20 PM and decided to hold the next NEC Meeting on 27 November 2021.
Cmde Sudheer Parkala (Retd)
President, TSEWA
