MINUTES OF THE 7TH ANNUAL GENERAL BODY MEETING OF TSEWA HELD ON 26 JUNE 2022
General
1. The 7th Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) of Tri Services Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association was held at 1000 hrs on 26 June at the Community Hall, Ved Vihar, AWHO Colony, Military Dairy Farm. Col G Parvathesam, the General Secretary called the House to Order at 1000 hrs and adjourned the Meeting by 30 minutes due to lack of quorum. The House was re-convened at 1030 hrs on 26 Jun 2022 and requisite quorum was deemed to have been achieved. The General Secretary thereafter conducted the proceedings as per the Approved Agenda, a Copy of which is place at Annexure-1.
Attendance
2. The meeting was attended by 75 Members as per Annexure-2.
Welcome Address
3. Cdr Chandra Shekhar, Joint Secretary welcomed the Members who came from far and near to attend the meeting. He also welcomed the Chief Guest Lt Col GN Agarwal who in spite of his advancing age consented to be the Chief Guest.
Lighting of Lamp and Felicitation of Chief Guest
4. The programme commenced with lighting of the lamp by the Chief Guest Lt Col GN Agarwal, Maj Gen Mukherjee, Brig SKS Rana, VSM, President of the Legal Division, Brig CS Vidyasagar, Chief Mentor, TSEWA and Hav Harish Asthana, President, TSEWA, UP. A two minutes silence was observed in memory of the departed Members especially, Late Col MK Veeramani, Gp Capt CRR Sastry and Lt Col Latiff Vadakkayil who rendered yeomen services to TSEWA. The Chief Guest was felicitated by Cmde Sudheer Parakala, President TSEWA who thanked Col Agrawal for readily coming forward to help TSEWA with his generous donation for the Building Fund. Addressing the gathering, the Chief Guest was eloquent in his praise to TSEWA for the wonderful services rendered to the Ex-Servicemen, Family Pensioners and other needy civilians by their Charity work.
Address by the President
5. Cmde Sudheer Parakala, President TSEWA addressed the AGM and shared some of the important concerns as out lined below:
a) He recollected how the vision and dedication of the Founder Col (Dr) GB Sethi and Brig CS Vidyasagar laid very strong foundation in the last six years of raising the Association.
b) He conveyed his appreciation for taking the organisation to 16,000 strong and that each member should strive to get at least ten each within this year to take the strength at least up to 1,00,000 so that we could get official recognition from MOD.
c) He conveyed his sincere appreciation to Col Nagesh Gupta and Madhuri Seva Fund and others who donated generously and facilitated disbursement of more than Rs.49 lakhs as Charity in the last seven years.
d) He conveyed his sincere appreciation to Shri Munikrishna, Chairman Subhadra Charitable Trust and 302 Members who have donated about 42 lakhs towards the Building Fund which has fulfilled our dream to have our own permanent premises.
e) He praised 828 donors who have spontaneously come forward to the rescue of Ms. Mahima Sagar, Grand Daughter of Brig CS Vidyasagar and donated more than Rupees 69 lakhs for her treatment.
f) The President requested the Zonal and State Presidents to quickly complete the exercise of correcting the e-mail IDs of all the Members and creation of WhatsApp Groups for better communication.
g) The Helpline Warriors especially Hav Harish Asthana, Hav JK Sahoo, HFO Reddy, Sub Maj KV Subba Rao, WO Thiruchelvam and Cmde Sandhu were given sincere appreciation for the excellent work in redressing the grievances of the Veterans and Family Pensioners.
h) The President lamented that due to COVID and non-filling up of vacancies in AFTs, the 30 odd Legal Cases filed remain unresolved since 2016. This has become justice delayed/ justice denied. He hoped that the AFTs will quickly dispose of the cases.
i) The President informed the Members that a very strong case was taken up 0n 20 May 2022 with PM, RM and FM to resolve all the glitches in SPARSH and stop migrating any more veterans on to the platform. He expressed his happiness that the Government has taken due cognizance of our letter and was doing all the rectifications.
j) On ACP for Sepoys, the President stated that a case for filing in AFT was proposed to make the ACP effective from 01 Jan 1996 instead of 07 Aug 2003. He exhorted the affected veterans to come forward for filing of the case so that they and their dependents get higher pension of Naik/Hav instead of continuing in pension of sepoy.
Approval of Minutes of 6th AGM
6. The General Secretary stated that the Minutes of the sixth AGM were uploaded to the website and also displayed on the Notice Board and sought approval. The minutes were proposed to be approved by Col Srikantha Seshadri and seconded by Lt Col VRRS Reddy.
Passing of Accounts for FY 2021-22
7. The General secretary briefed the house on the Audited Accounts which were circulated to all members and also displayed on the notice board. It was proposed to be approved by Brig SKS Rana, VSM and seconded by Cdr Chandra Shekhar. The Accounts stood approved.
Budget for FY 2022-23
8. Lt Col Vijay Chandra Salins, Treasurer briefed the proposed budget for the Financial Year 2022-2023. He explained about the sources of income to TSEWA. The treasurer has also informed the AGM that a total sum of Rs. 57.00 lakhs was spent on purchase of the Permanent office space out of which Rs. 42 lakhs came as donations and the balance spent from the corpus. He explained that the amount also included the cost of furniture and video conferencing system. On query from Brig SKS Rana regarding increase in proposed budget for Apartment Maintenance Charges from 16 thousand to 30 thousand. It was clarified that the earlier paid amount was for six months only and the new premises was procured in the mid of the year. The house approved the budget. The Budget was proposed for approval by Brig SKS Rana, VSM and seconded by Hav Harish Asthana and adopted by the house.
Approval of Auditors
9. The General secretary informed that M/S PS Reddy Associates has been providing the services of auditor for TSEWA for the last 7 years satisfactorily. AGM approved the auditors at the rate of Rs 60,000/ per year as being paid last year. Brig SKS Rana, VSM proposed approval and seconded by Maj General Shibnath Mukherjee. The motion was approved by the house.
Charity Activities
10. Charity Activities: Chairman Charity Division, Col N Sitaramaiah explained various charity activities and informed that TSEWA has spent Rs 49.00 lakhs so far to help the needy veterans/widows and civilians for their education, health and financial support. He appreciated the generosity and magnanimity of Col Nagesh Chandra Gupta who in in memory of his late wife Smt Madhuri for helping a number of poor students and their families during the Covid 19 pandemic through Madhuri Seva Fund (TSEWA). He also thanked Shri Munikrishna, an industrialist from Hyderabad who in memory of his mother Smt Subhadra for helping the poor students and the needy through Subhadra Charitable Trust. A cheque for Rs. 65000/- was presented by Maj Gen Shibnath Mukherjee, President, TSEWA, East Zone to Ms Monica Mallesh daughter of H/Capt Y M Mallesh who is pursuing her MBBS studies. Col N Sitaramaiah, Chairman Charity Division presented Cheques of Rs. 7,000/- each to two Railway Degree College students. The beneficiaries thanked TSEWA for the financial help which enabled them to pursue their dreams of higher studies. Some of the video clips from the students who earlier received financial assistance were also played.
Progress of Legal Cases
11. Brig SKS Rana, VSM, President Legal Division explained that more than 30 cases including OA 34/2016 were pending the judges are not keen to take up the appointments in AFTs as they are forced to report to the Defence Secretary killing their independence. He assured that once the courts are re-opened in the month of July 2022, he will liaise with Brig Srivastava, VSM our Advocate at Delhi and progress all the pending cases. He also requested not to file any fresh case till we get a suitable lawyer and AFT’s start giving their judgement in the old cases.
ECHS Matters
12. Col Srikantha Seshadri explained various issues pertaining to ECHS and problems being faced and remedial measures being taken. He said that AYUSH was introduced in ECHS a Few years back, where in ECHS beneficiary who did not find cure for any ailments could take sanction by OIC PC by way of an application, get treated in any of the AYUSH facility on reimbursement basis and after that one could get back to allopathic treatment by another application. Both Allopathy and AYUSH are NOT permitted at the same time/simultaneously. However, it has agreed and decided to get the MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) signed with AYUSH hospitals very shortly and the veterans can get a referral for any of the AYUSH treatment on a cashless basis.
13. Listed and unlisted procedure. All this time there was no way of getting treatment on unlisted procedure or to get treated of a listed procedure with non-empanelled hosp. Now it has been decided and agreed to provide prior sanction to unlisted procedure and also any listed procedure if recommended by any specialist/private hops where an ECHS patient is undergoing any consultation and or treatment on his/her own. One has to apply with all relevant medical documents to MD ECHS through his parent PC to get a sanction from MD ECHS for treatment of such procedures. It may take a max of about 20 days to get the sanction of MD ECHS. To quote an example, if a patient is to get a TKR with his own specialist/hospital where he has been on consultation/ treatment in a non-empanelled hospitals one can get sanction to get that treatment.
14. Budget shortage. Release of a timely budget is a problem resulting in procurement of medicines so is the availability of CT medicine and non-clearance of outstanding bills of empanelled hops as a result many good empanelled hops have stopped accepting ECHS beneficiaries.
Brief on Zonal Activities
15. Maj Gen Shibnath Mukherjee, President TSEWA East Zone Cmde Ashok Kota, President South Zone and Hav Harish Asthana, President Uttar Pradesh explained various steps they have under taken to improve the membership drive and in resolving the issues pertaining to the veterans and their families. Brig RS Rawat, President Uttara Khand and Col Unnithan also expressed their views through virtual conference.
Address by Chief Mentor
16. Brig CS Vidyasagar, Chief Mentor of TSEWA also spoke on the occasion and expressed his views on increasing the visibility of TSEWA activities. He profusely thanked all the TSEWA Members who have donated about Rs.69 lakhs for the treatment of Ms. Mahima Sagar, his Grand Daughter. He said that the treatment would commence soon and she would get a fresh lease of life.
Additional Points from Members
17. The House took up the following additional points for discussion. The discussion and decision taken are given below:
a) Brig CS Vidyasagar, Chief Mentor proposed that the tenure of the Management Committee of two years was too short and that it should be extended to five years as it takes almost two years for each member of managing committee to fully understand the responsibilities. By the time the team settled down, the tenure gets over which would not help the growth of TSEWA. The matter was debated at length. The President reminded Members about the provisioning the Bye-Laws which empowered the General Body to extend the tenure of the MC by another two years and hence there was no need for amending the Bye-Laws at present. He suggested that the point could be discussed suggestion during the next AGM and appropriate decision taken on extension of the tenure of the present MC. The House agreed to this suggestion.
b) Nb Sub Ranga Reddy raised a point regarding establishment of ECHS Hospital at Alwal. Nb Sub Ranga Reddy said that he would give one acre of land for establishment of ECHS at Alwal. It was decided that Nb Sub Ranga Reddy to give a detailed proposal for the same in order to take up the case with appropriate authorities.
c) Wg Cdr Gurmail Singh inquired about the progress of the AFT cases filed in Delhi. Since Brig SKS Rana, VSM, President of Legal Division has already given a detailed brief on the subject, the matter was not discussed again.
Vote of Thanks
18. Hony Capt MN Reddy, Joint Secretary proposed a vote of thanks. He thanked all the Members who have come from far and near to attend the meeting and contributed to its success. He conveyed his special thanks to the Management of Ved Vihar for making all the arrangements and giving the community hall free of charge for the AGM. He also thanked the organisers for all the excellent arrangements.
19. There being no further points, the meeting was adjourned at 1430 hrs.
Please find the photos taken at the 7th AGM at the link below:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/
Acknowledged with thanks