MINUTES OF 8TH AGBM OF TSEWA HELD ON 25 JUN 2023 AT NEW MUMBAI

1. The AGBM was held in MTDC Residency Conference Hall, New Mumbai. The General Secretary called the house to order at 1000 hrs and adjourned for 30 mins due to lack of mandated quorum. The house reassembled at 1030 hrs after the required quorum was complete. The mtg was attended by approx. 100 members including the NEC & MC members. The list is attached as Annexure 1.
2. The General Secretary, Lt Col G Parvathesam commenced the proceedings as per the agenda points. (Points attached as Annexure – 2)

Lighting of the Lamp

• AVM Hariharan, the Chief guest lit the lamp along with the President, East & West Zonal Presidents and a lady member Smt Kamal Rookh W/o Wg Cdr MD Karbhary.
• Welcome address was given by Cmde K S Sandhu, President West Zone. He welcomed all the members including Veeranari’s & thanked them for sparing their valuable time to attend the meeting.

Address by the President- Cmde Sudheer Parakala

• The President welcomed all the members attending the AGBM. He briefly highlighted the aim & objectives of TSEWA. The dedication, involvement & commitment of TSEWA in attending to the problems projected by the ESM especially JCOs/ OR & their equivalents and the Veer naris.
• He explained to the audience how TSEWA is different from other major ESM organizations operating in the country. Some of the aspects brought out are as under: –
• TSEWA is the only ESM organization to have the ISO certification by GIC, London
• Democratic & Functional efficiency through 3 Tier management i.e General Body, NEC includes Zonal, State presidents, Helpline warriors & the MC.
• All expenditure beyond the mandated limits of MC needs prior approval of the NEC.
• Conduct of Awareness Works shops all over the country in ESM populated areas/ towns. Proposed and planned adopting both top down (MC) & bottom-up approach as suggested by Zonal/ State presidents.
• Having a band of Volunteer Helpline Warriors spread across major ESM populated regions to resolve various problems faced by the ESM. The help is extended w/o any preconditions.
• Filing class action suits in AFT (PB), New Delhi for the entitled pensionary benefits not otherwise granted by the government.
• Charity activities in terms of one-time financial assistance to the destitute ESM, Veeranari’s, a few deserving civilians, and funding the meritorious students of secondary & graduation level from poor economic background.
• He, thereafter appreciated the excellent work being done by the Helpline Warriors, other functionaries at each level and exhorted them to continue the good work being done as per our ethos to sustain & enhance the credibility of TSEWA. He also thanked the Madhuri Seva Fund Trustee, Col Nagesh Gupta, Subhadra Charitable Trustee, Mr Muni Krishna, for their major contributions to Charity activities, as also other members who made generous donations.

Annual Report by General Secretary

• The General Secretary proposed the passing of the 7th AGM Minutes before proceeding ahead. Col Srikanta Seshadri proposed & Cdr HS Dhillon seconded the same for approval.
• He then covered the following aspects:
• The details of the MC & NEC members and the Helpline Warriors were flashed to the audience. He informed all that a monthly summary of various actions taken by these warriors along with the ESMs benefited is compiled & uploaded on TSEWA web site for information.
• He also brought out that the Membership has increased from 14731 to 17692 members. He requested all State & Zonal Presidents, Helpline warriors and others to bring in more members into the fold of TSEWA by spreading the awareness of the activities being undertaken by TSEWA.
• Audited Balance Sheet. The Audited Balance Sheet for FY 2022-23 was flashed for the attending members.

Maj Gen SN Mukherjee proposed and Hony Capt B Joseph Seconded.

•  Appointment of Auditor: As per our Bye Laws an Auditor has to be appointed for the FY 2023-24. He informed that the present auditor M/s PS Reddy & Associates are providing very satisfactory services since last 7 years and it is recommended that we appoint them for the FY 2023-24. The matter was put up for approval.

Proposed by Brig CS Vidyasagar and Hony Capt M N Reddy Seconded.

•  Donors to TSEWA. The names of major donors for purchase of TSEWA HQ Office building was brought out by the Secretary for info of the audience.
• Thereafter, he informed that there may be a decrease in the flow of funds for Charity activities. On seeing TSEWA activities, SMT K G SUBADRA expressed her interest and volunteered to donate Rs 10000/- per month for education of deserving girl students. He also mentioned that UJAMDAS SOMDAS PATEL SEVA FUND from USA donated Rs 1.21 lakhs for funding education of meritorious students.

Presentation of Accounts

1. The Treasurer, Col V Mahadevan info all about the sources of Income and the mandated financial powers of various functionaries. He thereafter flashed the Proposed Budget for FY 2023-24 for benefit of everyone.

There being no observations, the same were proposed by H/Capt B Joseph & seconded by Maj Gen S N Mukherjee for approval.

1. He then shared the proposed budget for the ensuing FY for information. Proposed by Cmde KS Sandhu and seconded by Cdr Chandrasekhar.

 Charity Activities

1. The Chairman Charity Division Col N Sitaramaiah informed that TSEWA has been undertaking charity activities for three main purposes; namely, Education of poor & meritorious students of secondary & graduation level; one-time financial grant to destitute widows or wards of ESMs and for medical treatment. Since inception in 2015, TSEWA benefitted 609 students/ individuals by distributing Rs 56.745 lakhs, in the last 8 yrs.

The major donors have been Madhuri Seva Fund, Subhadra Charitable Trust & Brig SKS Rana’s friends’ group. TSEWA had also under taken crowd funding activity in four extremely deserving cases as under:

1. In Mar 2018    for Capt V S Gurung   8.25 Lakhs
2.  Smt Zalengkim, a Veernari from Manipur was provided financial aid of Rs 8.9 Lakhs in the year 2019.
3.  Smt Shaik Rahina, Widow of a Sepoy from Andhra Pradesh who was in dire financial condition was provided Rs 2.43 Lakhs in the year 2022.
4.  A sum of approx. Rs 80 lakh was collected through crowd funding from members/non-members for Miss Mahima Sagar who is suffering from a rare medical disease.
5.  The Chairman on behalf of TSEWA profusely thanked all those who donated over the years for their generosity, whenever TSEWA made the clarion call for charity.

The video testimonials of a few beneficiaries: one student each from Telangana, UP, WB and Andhra Pradesh were shown to the audience.

LEGAL ASPECTS

1. Brig DSC Varma,VSM presented a legal brief on behalf of Brig SKS Rana, VSM President Legal Division. He informed all that the Govt and Lower offices generally deny the rightful dues to the pensioners and Veernaris. TSEWA has observed that there are a large No. of such cases. These cases are analyzed by Brig CS Vidyasagar the Chief Mentor who with his acumen and in-depth knowledge of pensionary matters prepares a legal brief. Thereafter it is put up to the NEC who examine the case for its merit and suitable cases are approved for filing in the AFT. Thereafter the environment is sensitized and all eligible volunteers are invited to subscribe to the cases. Since Class action suits are filed by TSEWA a very meagre Legal fee is charged as under:
2. Officers                  –           Rs.8000/- only
3. JCO’s                      –           Rs.4000/- only
4. OR’s                       –           Rs.3000/- only
5. Veeranari’s            –           Nil

The money collected Is paid as fees to the nominated Advocate by TSEWA.

1. Brig Varma further informed all that till date TSEWA has filed 42 Cases. Judgment in our favour has been received on many of the cases. He highlighted the following.
2. More than 3.45 Crores have been distributed to affected ESM, which was their rightful dues.
3. Notional MSP to Maj Gen and Equivalent has been passed in our favour.
4. Nine cases are posted for final hearing.
5. Rest of the cases are in progress.

Details of the cases and their status can be viewed on TSEWA website www.tsewa.org.

Brig Varma also updated the progress of the case pertaining to pension anomaly of Nb Sub to Pre 2006 Hony Nb Sub. In this regard TSEWA has sensitized the concerned authorities at the highest level (viz) the Defence Minister and the Finance Minister of the grave anomaly and we are confident of a favorable justice.

 Address by Maj Gen S N Mukherjee (Retd.) President TSEWA (East Zone)

1. Salient points of the address by the President East Zone are as under:
2. It was highlighted that TSEWA is totally different from other ESM organizations.
3. A group of dedicated, experienced pers formed this organization with the main focus of seeking and redressing veteran’s problems.
4.  Issues raised by veterans and veer Naari’s are resolved by Front line warriors and at awareness camps held by TSEWA.
5. He highlighted one such case cited of Ms. Aparajita Roy D/o late Col B M Roy a mentally challenged, divorcee, fully dependent on pension of her father & later on of her mother, who expired in Dec 21. Her plight came to light when she approached TSEWA on 8 jan23 at Kolkata, during an awareness camp. A very complicated issue without having requisite documents, was taken up by dedicated members of TSEWA under the guidance of Brig C S Vidyasagar.
6. The case got resolved in less than two months’ time. She is presently getting her disability family pension of Rs 94,000/- plus & arrears.

Similarly, a large No. of such cases have been resolved.

He requested all to strengthen the hands of TSEWA by becoming life members & attend awareness camps to spread the knowledge among all veterans.

Address by Cmde K S Sandhu President West Zone.

1. Cmde KS Sandhu while giving a brief on TSEWA activities in West Zone said that since he is based at Navi Mumbai, he has been able to resolve a large number of Pension, PPO and ECHS issues mainly of naval ESMs. He gave few examples of some very complicated pension cases of ESMs and Veeranari’s which he has been able to resolve through good liaison with NAVPEN, PCDA(N) and other naval authorities. He introduced Smt Indira Arunachalam who was present as a guest at the AGM. Her case was very challenging to resolve. Smt Indira, is a divorcee daughter of civilian defence employee of PCDA(Navy) who had retired in 1954 and passed away in 1984. She used to live on ‘prasad’ from the local temples at Matunga as she had no support from her brother. It was a herculean task to get her family pension since PPO and other records of her father were not available and had to be reconstructed at PCDA(P). It took nearly three years to get her the pension which was possible only with active support of Cmde Sudheer Parakala and Hon’ble FM Smt Nirmala Sitaraman. He urged those present that they must act as brand ambassadors and help increase awareness about TSEWA among ESMs. It is not that veterans don’t want to become members but it is because they are not aware about our organisation and the sewa we are doing for the community. He said TSEWA is a unique organisation which is asking ESMs to come to it to get their problems solved. He said that TSEWA today has 18000 members but needs to enroll many more members primarily to achieve government recognition as the Govt has increased the limit to one lakh members for recognition. He said that this is not a big target as we have 31 lakh ESM including Veeranaris in our country.

Cmde Sandhu thanked President TSEWA for holding this year’s AGM at Mumbai as it has given an opportunity to the members living here to attend the meeting and interact with our Chief Mentor Brig CS Vidyasagar and other NEC members of TSEWA.

Presentation on ECHS Matters

• Col Shrikanta Seshadri. State President, handling ECHS problems of ESMs briefly reiterated the importance of u/m aspects pertaining to ECHS cards (64 KB).
• Keeping the login details to including mob no, password, security question & it’s answer and place of Birth, safely recorded for future reference. The same are required in various contingencies. Including applying for new card in case of loss or replacement, demise of ESM, change of polyclinic & blocking of cards of dependants on being employed.
• Immediate Activation & Registration of 64 KB card on receipt. Else in case of emergency or serious illness, ESMs encounter difficulty in admission / treatment in empanelled hospitals & treatment gets delayed till Card is activated. Also, after activation, the card has to be registered with the dependant Polyclinic, as also on ECHS Beneficiary App, which facilitates online booking of appt with the doctor/ for medicine.
• Intimation of admission in Non- Empanelled Hosp within 48 h of admission to the polyclinic. And an Emergency Intimation. Report (EIR) is to be initiated by the hospitals or else it causes delay while claiming reimbursement of treatment warranting condonation of delay by Central org, which needs to be processed through the polyclinic.
• The need to regularly check the status of the reimbursement claim submitted to the parent polyclinic, either on the ECHS app or https://www.echsbpa.utiitsl.com/ECHS/ ; if it is under observation as Need More Information ( NMI) mode & take action to settle the observation raised.
• Responding to the query by one ESM on whether monthly medicines can be collected by third party, he clarified that it is allowed by either the spouse/NOK only but there is a need to visit the doctor once in a quarter even for this purpose.
• Clarifying on a point raised by an ESM that some Empanelled Hosp are not entertaining ESM patients, he said this is a live problem as the bills amounting to crores submitted by these hospitals are not being cleared by the Central Organizations due to budgetary constraints by the govt to ECHS . We have to live with it till such time fund allotment is increased by the govt.

Address by Brig CS Vidyasagar

• The Chief Mentor, Brig CS Vidyasagar briefed about the contents of One-Man Judicial Committee (OMJC) report. He there after highlighted 3 important points of the OMJC report.
• Query-1 of MoD (ESM). Benefit of OROP for Reservists.

Recommendation of OMJC: First fix pension of Reservist for their colour service of 9 years Proportionately Vis – a-Vis 15 years of service of regular soldier and then implement OROP also to the Reservists.

• Query-2 of MoD (ESM): Whether benefit of MACP ACP to be extended pre-6^th CPC pensioners.

OMJC Recommendation: The pensioners of pre 6^th CPC & Post 6^th CPC are standing on the same pedestal and are equals. Equals cannot be treated as unequal. Pre 6^th CPC pensioners are also to be extended the benefit of ACP & MACP.

• Query-3 of MoD (ESM): Should OROP be extended to service beyond 33 years.

OMJC Recommendation: The pension of ESM who put in more than 33 years of service should be fixed proportionately.

• Query-4 of MoD (ESM): Should fixation of pension of those not retired in base year (2013) need any modification.

OMJC Recommendation: Fixing pension of Hony Nk not retired in 2013 with longer service equal to pension of Hony Nk with lesser service but retired in 2013 is illegal and irrational.

• Query-5 of MoD (ESM): Should pension of Liberalised Family pensioners and war injured invalided soldiers need any modification.

OMJC Recommendation: when a soldier is martyred, he was considered to have superannuated with full length of service. But in OROP his actual service at the time of martyrdom is considered, which is gross injustice to widows of Martyred Soldiers. This must be reverted to earlier system of pension fixation.

• Query-6 of MoD (ESM): Should pension of last rank vs rank held for less than 10 Months need any modification.

OMJC Recommendation: Any soldier who retires in a rank for less than 10 Months service should not be deprived of pension of rank in which he retired. This condition that one has to hold the rank for 10 months has been removed by 6^th CPC. All pre -6^th CPC pensioners should also be granted pension of last rank held even if it is not held for 10 months.

• Extension of Tenure of MC: The tenure of present MC can be extended by 2 yrs.

There being no observations, the same were proposed by H/Capt B Joseph & seconded by Brig DSC Varma for approval.

• Resignation of President: Cmde Sudheer Parkala explicitly stated his inability to continue as president due to certain pressing & unavoidable future commitments.

There being no observations, the same was proposed by H/Capt B Joseph & seconded by Maj Gen S N Mukherjee for approval

• Election of New President: Cmde K S Sandhu was appointed as returning officer to conduct the proceedings for election of new President.

 It was found that only Brig CS Vidyasagar had filed his nomination for the post of President.

Hence Brig CS Vidyasagar was elected unopposed as the new President of TSEWA.

• Cmde Sudheer Parakala, president thereafter gave a farewell address. The address is reproduced below: –

I am recalling the message I sent on 27 June 2021 below when all the esteemed Members placed the trust in me and put the mantle of Presidentship of TSEWA on my shoulders.

In the last two years I dare say that I have done my best to put TSEWA on an even keel without rocking the boat. Our esteemed Members have given us the much-desired permanent roof to house the TSEWA office by their generous donations. We have been relentlessly pursuing the legal cases filed to bring relief to our members who subscribed for various cases and we have no doubt that the judgments would bring us the rightful dues that were denied due to bureaucratic procedures.

On the Charity front, some of our large-hearted donors continued to support the cause bringing much desired relief to the poor students who were unable to pay the tuition fee to complete their studies and become earning members to support their poor parents.

Many cases of anomalies of policy nature were taken up with the Government at the level of RM / FM and are being relentlessly pursued. Payment of pension of Nb Sub to Hony Nb Sub of pre 2006 is a case in point. We are very sure that the cases will fructify soon.

I have personally tried my best to live up to our motto “In Service of Veterans” in the last two years and I am happy to handover the baton back to Brig Vidyasagar, our founder President who is re-elected today as the President for the next two years. I have been the Vice President for six years and at the helm as the President for the last two years in our relentless pursuit to help the veteran community. I have some personal commitments and hence stepping down though the Members have been requesting to continue for another two years as permitted by our Bye-laws.

I have no doubt that TSEWA will flourish and reach greater heights under the able stewardship of Brig Vidyasagar. TSEWA is ours and it is our bounden duty to nourish it to help Veteran JCO/ ORs and Veernaris. The service HQs have their own constraints to look after the veteran community. We have to help ourselves so that we lead a dignified life in post-retirement phase. Please remember that growth of any organisation is directly proportional to the membership. I request all Members to bring more members onboard to strengthen TSEWA to do more service to the veteran community. TSEWA also needs active financial support to achieve its desire to provide relief to the needy veterans, Veernaris and also the downtrodden citizens of our country. I appeal to all kind hearted members to contribute to the excellent charity work that TSEWA does.

When I step down from my office today, I would like to thank each member of the Managing Committee, the National Executive Committee, State/ Zonal Presidents and not to forget the Helpline Warriors who have been instrumental in establishing TSEWA as the most credible organisation in welfare of the veterans.

Any veteran having any problem about pensions or other issues are kindly requested to approach the Zonal, State Presidents or our Helpline Warriors. The details are at www.tsewa.org. You can write to TSEWA HQ at triservices.hyd@gmail.com or approach Brigadier CS Vidyasagar, the new and Founder President.

I wish all the Veterans and their family Members all the very best. Stay connected and remember that TSEWA is always available for any help that you need.

• Vote of thanks: Hony Capt B Joseph gave the vote of thanks at the end of the AGM.

Regards

Brig CS Vidyasagar

President, TSEWA

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