Minutes of the Virtual Meeting of the TSEWA National Executive Committee held at 1000 hrs on 27 November 2021

Attendance

The meeting was attended by the following:-

1. Cmde Sudheer Parakala                       President, in Chair
2. Brig CS Vidyasagar                                 Chief Mentor, TSEWA
3. Lt Col G Parvathesam                           General Secretary
4. Lt Col VC Salins                                      Treasurer
5. Cdr Chandra Shekhar                           Joint Secretary
6. Cmde Ashok Kota                                  President TSEWA, South Zone
7. Col Ajit Singh Rana                                 President TSEWA, North Zone
8. WO Thiruchelvam                                  President TSEWA, Tamilnadu
9. Cmde KS Sandhu                                   President TSEWA, West Zone
10. Col Srikantha Seshadri                          President TSEWA, Karnataka
11. Lt Col LM Singh                                       President TSEWA, North East Zone
12. Col CAJ Swamy                                          President TSEWA, AP
13. Brig RS Rawat,VSM                                President TSEWA, Central Zone
14. Brig Ram Narayan, VSM                        President TSEWA, MP
15. Sub KV Subba Rao                                  President TSEWA, AP Coastal Area
16. Maj Dr. B Bhikshapathy                         Member
17. Lt Col VRRS Ramana Reddy                  Member
18. Lt Col Dr. Bhaskara reddy                     Member
19. Hony Capt B Joseph                               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. Full Arrears of Broad Banding of Disability Pension:   The National Executive Committee discussed the matter at length and recommended that filing of the case for full arrears should be done for all litigants of BB1, BB2 and BB3 at the same time and should not be sequenced. The NEC also recommended that we should invite fresh litigants irrespective of whether they were litigants of earlier cases of TSEWA or not. The President informed that the proposal will be discussed with Brig AK Srivastava and a fresh mail will be floated to the environment based on his decision.

Item No.2. OROP Case:  The General Secretary informed that OROP case has been filed in honorable High Court of Hyderabad. The court has sent notices to the respondents and directed TSEWA to write suitable letters to the respondents directly requesting for immediate implementation of GOI letter. The President informed that necessary letters were written to the respondents and that we have to wait for six weeks before going back to the High Court as directed by the HC.

Item No.3. Lack of Donations: The General Secretary lamented that the donations to TSEWA from the Members has turned to a trickle and this was adversely affecting the Charity work that we do and also straining our finances to run the Office. He said that Col Nagesh Gupta who was the main Donor for Charity has not been in touch with TSEWA in the last few months and prayed for his good health. The President requested the NEC Members to send suitable messages to the Members in their own Zones/ States encouraging them to donate liberally.

Item No.4. Creation of WhatsApp Groups for Communications:  The President reiterated the need for early completion of creation of WhatsApp Groups at Mandal/Taluk, District and State Levels at the earliest and definitely by 31 Dec 2021 and said that this is the only way all info of our activities and important messages are received by all the Members. He also appreciated efforts of the Zonal Presidents in this direction and said that the Presidents of the States should not mind the drive of Zonal Presidents for expeditious creation of the communication groups.

Item No.5. Non-receipt of Pensions by few ESM in this month: Col AJ Swamy informed that few ESM could not receive their pensions of October in this month, may be because of transfer of responsibility from CPCC of some Banks to Sparsh organization. The President informed that as of now, the Govt has decided to migrate pensioners of SBI only on to Sparsh and we should be clear whether the veterans who have not got the pension are from SBI or other Banks. He was requested to inform the details of such ESM, so that a case can be taken up by TSEWA.

Item No.6. Interaction of TSEWA Reps with Record Offices and Pension Disbursing Organizations:  TSEWA NEC appreciated the efforts of Cmde KS Sandhu in case of a widow Mrs. Pant, where he could get her pensions released within few days due to his personal liaison with NAVPEN. She in turn as a mark of appreciation has donated Rs.5,000/- to TSEWA even pending receipt of arrears. The NEC appreciated the efforts of Hav Janendra Sahoo, Hav Harish Asthana and other Help-Line warriors of TSEWA who are doing an excellent job in resolving the pension related issues through liaison with the CPPCs, Record Offices, PCDA etc. The President suggested that all non-members who are benefitting through the efforts of our Help-Line Warriors should be encouraged to become Members of TSEWA along with their friends.  Further Maj Dr. B Bhikshapathy, suggested to nominate Reps of TSEWA to interact with each Record Office and more Officer Reps to interact with MOD, PCDA etc, so that the problems of ESM can solved at a faster pace.

Item No 7. Decent Last Rites Allowance (DLRA):  Brig Ram Narayan, President MP State has informed that at certain Military Stations where Army Units are not there, such as Betul in Madhya Pradesh, IAF Organizations are refusing the DLRA, commonly known as Funeral Grant, to NOK of Army ESM. Brig RS Rawat informed that the responsibility of attending the Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Funeral of ESM has been given to the District Soldier Boards recently. They should be entrusted with the responsibility disbursement of DLRA also. The President has informed that he recently interacted with Cmde Saluja, DESA at NHQ who requested that all the Veteran Sailors should become Members of Veteran Sailor’s Foundation of the Navy so that the DLRA allowance of Rs.20,000/- is passed on to the dependent family Members in case of unfortunate demise of the Veteran.

Item No 8. ePPO of ESM: Col Ajit Rana, Presdent, North Zone informed that PCDA has issued ePPOs of Officers and Record Offices are not able to send ePPOs to all ESM so far. The ESM are facing lot of difficulties in getting their pensions, ECHS Cards etc. The President informed that the matter was discussed during the previous meeting of the NEC where it was decided that TSEWA would conduct workshops in all Record Offices with the help of Maj Gen Mukherjee who was the erstwhile Commandant of RO Rourke.

There being no further points, the meeting was closed at 12:30 PM and decided to hold the next NEC Meeting on 11 December 2021.

Cmde Sudheer Parkala (Retd)
President, TSEWA