Minutes of the Virtual Meeting of the TSEWA National Executive Committee held at 1000 hrs on 11 December 2021
Attendance
The meeting was attended by the following:-
- Cmde Sudheer Parakala President, in Chair
- Brig CS Vidyasagar Chief Mentor, TSEWA
- Col N Sitaramaiah Vice-President
- Lt Col G Parvathesam General Secretary
- Lt Col VC Salins Treasurer
- Hony Capt MN Reddy Joint Secretary
- Maj Gen SN Mukherjee President TSEWA, East Zone
- Cmde Ashok Kota President TSEWA, South Zone
- Cmde KS Sandhu President TSEWA, West Zone
- WO Thiruchelvam President TSEWA, Tamilnadu
- Col Srikantha Seshadri President TSEWA, Karnataka
- Maj Dr. B Bhikshapathy Member
- Lt Col Dr. Bhaskara Reddy Member
- Mrs Rekha Sekhri Co-opted 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. Broadbanding of Disability Pension: The General Secretary Informed that TSEWA has received willingness from 40 members of BB-1 case and their vakalatnamas will be sent to the Advocate at Delhi by 15 December 21.
Action: The General Secretary may please scrutinize and send the vakalatnamas to our Advocate ASAP.
Item No. 2. Social Media: The General Secretary informed that TSEWA has activated its Face Book Account and requested all State/ Zonal Presidents to send briefs on their recent activities, so that they can be uploaded on Face Book.
Action: All the State/ Zonal Presidents
Item No. 3. TSEWA Website: The General Secretary informed that M/s Aaradhya Technologies was to update the website with latest information. But, no progress is there. Maj Dr. B Bhikshapathy informed that M/s Aaradhya Technologies have already handed over the website to TSEWA and Password of the website account also changed by TSEWA. Further, he informed that M/s Aaradhya Technologies is not ready to accept AMC for lesser amount than Rs 36000/- per annum as quoted by them. The President informed that in spite of his personal discussions with the MD of the Company, there was poor response from Aaradhya and hence suggested that some other company be appointed to take care of the maintenance of the website.
Action: The General Secretary is requested to identify suitable company and conclude an AMC Contract.
Item No. 4. Additional Pension for Super Senior Citizens: The President informed that final decision has been taken by the Government on the subject to increase the pension after a veteran completes the age of 80, 85 years etc. A bill has been passed in both houses of Parliament as an amendment bill nullifying the judgements of HC Karnataka, Guwahati and the HSC. Therefore no AFT case shall be taken up by TSEWA in this regard.
The President informed that, Col Dr. GB Sethi, Mentor of TSEWA proposed to take up a case with the Defence Minister by him through his private channels to increase the subject pension by 2% every year instead of increasing 10% after every 5 years.
Action: Brig CS Vidyasagar, Chief Mentor of TSEWA, is requested to draft the letter.
Item No. 5. Decent Last Rites Allowance (DLRA): WO Thiruchelvam suggested that DLRA should be made applicable also for the death of Widow of an ESM. The President explained that as of now DLRA is given to the Veteran and not the widow. However, there is a need to get suitable orders issued to all the CSD Canteens to expeditiously hand over the Grant to NOK of all veterans attached to that particular canteen irrespective of the service they belonged to. As far as the Navy Veterans are concerned, NHQ requested that all Veteran Sailors Registered themselves with the nearest “Veteran Sailors Foundation (VSF)” so that the existing grant of Rs. 20,000 is handed over to the NOK.
Action: The General Secretary is requested to put up a letter to AHQ for issue of suitable Orders.
Item No. 6. ePPO of ESM: Maj Gen SN Mukherjee informed the progress for conducting the workshop by TSEWA at Roorkee on calculation of pension of ESM according to Notional Pay Method and Fitment Factor Method so that Record Offices can generate of ePPO. After discussions, it was decided that Brig CS Vidyasagar conducted a workshop centrally for all Record Office representatives. A suitable case may be taken up with the AG.
Action: Brig CS Vidyasagar, Chief Mentor was requested to put up a draft proposal.
Item No. 7. Madhuri Sewa Fund: The General Secretary informed that Col Nagesh Gupta has requested TSEWA to find out deserving students of Final Year in Degree Course who are unable to pay the Tuition / Examination Fee.
Action: All Presidents requested to identify poor deserving students in their area and send the recommendations to TSEWA.
Item No. 8. Pension of Maj Gen & Above: Brig CS Vidyasagar explained in detail about the injustice being done in fixing of pension for Maj Gen and above and suggested TSEWA to file a suitable case in AFT (PB), Delhi.
Action: Brig CS Vidyasagar Chief Mentor was requested prepare a Legal Brief for opinion of the Advocate.
Item No. 9. Recovery of Bank Loan of ESM from the Widow: WO Thiruchelvam has brought out a case a widow, whose family pension is stopped by SBI for recovery of the loan taken by the deceased ESM. The President suggested that the Circle Defence Banking Advisor’s help may be sought to resolve the issue.
Action: WO Thiruchelvam may speak to Maj Gen Eshwaran or the present CDBA and help the widow in this matter.
Item No. 10. Court Case against CGDA: Maj Dr. B Bhikshapathy brought out the injustice being done the CGDA in deciding the pension of ESM, like
- Granting less pension to Maj Gens than Brigs, by not including notional MSP.
- Granting less Pension @ 3% per year in OROP, to ESM for having lesser service, but not granting higher pension of 3% per extra number of years over 33.
- Granting Less pensions to Hony N/Subs as compared to N/Subs etc.
He suggested TSEWA to file a court case against CGDA, to penalize the authorities responsible for such willful negligence, so that they shall be more careful in future while sanctioning the pension of ESM in future.
The President explained that no Group A Officer has been penalised ever for dereliction and more over any case has to be filed against the Ministry concerned and not individuals.
Action: Nil.
Item No. 11. TSEWA Google Group Mail: Maj Dr. B Bhikshapathy opined that TSEWA is not visible in the mails frequently now as it is restricted to Administrator only. He suggested to make the TSEWA mail group open to everybody to post their opinions.
The President explained that the problem of a large number of unsolicited mails being posted in the Group Mails was discussed by the NEC previously and a decision was taken to use the Group Mail for posting important messages from TSEWA HQ only. Any Member who desires to circulate an important mail to the entire Group has to forward the mail to TSEWA HQ on triservice.hyd@gmail.com which will be scrutinized and published by TSEWA HQ if it is considered important.
Action: For Info of All Members
Item No. 12. TSEWA Membership Application: Col Srikantha Seshadri suggested to make the Application on website an editable one, so that new members can fill in the application online and submit to TSEWA. Maj Dr. B Bhikshapthy explained that editable Membership Form will require considerable programming costs and not viable. The President suggested that the application filled with photographs can now be submitted as a scanned copy or a screenshot on WhatsAPP.
Action: For Info of All Members.
Item No. 13. Implementation of Decisions by the TSEWA NEC: Maj Dr. B Bhikshapthy suggested to have system of monitoring action taken on various decisions taken by TSEWA NEC. Brig CS Vidyasagar, Chief Mentor supported the suggestion and expressed his anguish over non-implementation of TSEWA NEC decision on installation of Video Conferencing System. The matter was discussed at length and it was decided that the Video Conferencing system should be installed at the earliest.
Action: The General Secretary should monitor the progress of each decision taken by the NEC and brief the NEC on progress / action taken. The General Secretary was requested to finalise a suitable system and complete the installation at the earliest.
There being no further points, the meeting was closed at 13:40 PM and decided to hold the next NEC Meeting on 23 December 2021 instead of 25 Dec which happens to be Christmas holiday.
Cmde Sudheer Parkala (Retd)
President, TSEWA
Read and acknowledged.
With Regards