Fw: MINUTES OF MEETING OF TSEWA HELD ON 07 NOV 2015

[atul madan]

 Please join if you are keen to get a lump sum amount due to you

 

  

warm regards,

Lt Col Atul Madan (Retd)

C-6 Greater Kailash, Enclave - I

New Delhi -110048
Tele Mobile : 09212705227
         Res      : 01165652525

On Friday, 13 November 2015 10:23 AM, RR Chandra <colrrc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear All,

Krishna has received one more form from Maj. Gen. Vijay Krishna along with checks for Brig. Sharad Chandra Gupta.

Gen. Vijay Krishna is trying to enroll more Veterans to join as Litigants.

OROP Notified is disappointing. TSEWA will be shortly filing the case with AFT Delhi for all Litigants who have joined.

The case is a winnable case as per the S.C. Judgment in 53 Maj. Gen’s case. We are asking for OROP from 01.01.2006,

based on the S.C. Judgment. TSEWA Meeting minutes are given below.

I just want to clarify that the benefit  of AFT Case being filed will be available only to the Litigants, as in case of 53 Maj. Gen’s.

We can receive applications from Delhi / NCR up to 28^th Nov. Those wanting to file Please Call Krishna at 750-355-8403 after 3p.m. to 11.30p.m.

The Veterans will have to come personally to sign papers, with the Check Book and 2 Photographs of self and Spouse. In case of Single Lady one Photograph. At Col. R.R. Chandra S-207, Greater Kailash II, New Delhi 110048, Opp. Don Bosco School Gate.     

 

Best Regards

Col. Raja Chandra

U.S. No. 423-201-4580

Whatsapp No. 91-9810833641

 

From: Sivasankar Vidyasagar [mailto:csvidy...@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2015 3:20 PM
To: yahoogroups; We Gunners @ yahoogroups .com; Military Veterans; iesm_hy...@yahoogroups.com; pals...@yahoogroups.com; ts...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: MINUTES OF MEETING OF TSEWA HELD ON 07 NOV 2015

 

Minutes of Core Gp Meeting of TSEWA on 7 Nov 2015 at 1030h at Sector C in

                                       AWHO Colony, Gautamn Enclave, Sikh Road,  Secunderabad

1.     The following were Present.

(a)       Brig CS Vidyasagar, President

(b)       Col N Sitaramaiah, Vice - President

(c)        Col GB Sethi, General Secretary

(d)       Col Parvathesam, Treasurer

(e)        Gp Capt CRR Sastry, Joint Secretary

(f)        H/Capt B Joseph, Joint Secretary

(g)       Air Cmde GS Nijjar

(h)       Cmde Sudhir Parakala

(j)        Col MK Veeramani

(k)       Col MJ Ganapathy

           In addition, 10 ESMs and three ladies attended.

 

2.         Format of Meeting. The President welcomed all present and said that to get most of the time spent in the meeting, a format needs to be followed. The meeting begins with points from President followed by those from General Secretary Treasurer and Legal Team. There after points of Agenda sent by members will be discussed followed by points by other members for Discussion. Keeping in mind the age of our Group efforts will be made to restrict the duration of the meeting to two hours.

3.         President’s Points. The following points were dwelt upon by the President.
 

(a)       Mrs. Jhansi. The President spoke about Giddalur of Prakasam Dist of Andhra Pradesh, being a town with huge concentration of Ex Servicemen and active role of Mrs. Jhansi in ESM Welfare. He welcomed her to the meeting

 

(b)       53 Maj Gens Case in SC. This case is adjourned to a date after winter vacation in the month of January 2016 and there is no certainty that it will be disposed off expeditiously thereafter. Hence it is for the consideration of the house whether we go ahead and file the case in AFT without further waiting or wait endlessly.

 

(c)       Injustice to Family Pensioners. The Pensions of veterans (JCOs and OR) were revised in Jul 2009 and we.f. 24 Sep 2012 and some benefit accrued to them. However no benefit accrued to the Family Pensioners of Sepoys, Naiks and Havildars as their pensions remained stagnant at Rs 3,500 per month. They are not getting any pension arrears. The circular 430 of PCDA(Pensions) Allahabad does not give any explanation as to why family pensioners are not entitled for increase in pensions who are the most disadvantaged lot. They have two to three children to support with no help from in-laws or from parents. They do not have a male member to supplement their income. Veterans on the other hand get some job to supplement their pension to look after their families. To obtain Justice to this most neglected section of Defence Pensioners there is a need for take up their case in Legal forums.

 

(d)       Commendabe Work done by Col RR Chandra. Placing on record the commendable work done by Col RR Chandra in getting members and donors for TSEWA and litigants, the President said that we should attend to his messages expeditiously and respond suitably. Living in far off place in USA he has been constantly helping TSEWA to increase its foot print in USA and in Delhi. He motivated many of his old friends in Delhi to join the legal battle. 46 officers from rank of Maj Gen to Maj joined TSEWA and paid legal fees of Rs 5000. He made all administrative arrangements in his own house at S-207, Greater Kailash Part II, Delhi to accommodate our two legal representatives who went to Delhi to have detailed discussions with Brig AK Srivastava through help of Brig SKS Rana, Core Gp member of TSEWA in Gurgaon. Right from the time our two officers landed in Delhi Air port to time till they left Delhi on this important mission, all administrative support like car, food, accommodation, office requisites like photostating etc was provided by Shri Krishna Chaitanya, care taker of house of Col RR Chandra in Delhi.

 

(e)       TSEWA Blog. Many felt Tri Services Veteran Group Yahoo mail to convey all latest developments in veteran front was clogging their mail boxes as 500 to 600 mails are received every day. This causes lot of headaches to delete such mails. One veteran suggested there is a need to have only one way communication and the best means is to create a blog. This was further improved by Brig SKS Rana, VSM to go to Word Press. Com who have been in this business for a long time. Based on request by the President, Wg Cdr Ashwani Kumar Sarda created a free bolg titled THE TSEWA. The link is https://thetsewablog.wordpress.com. Anyone can see content in the blog and give his comments too. This blog has become operational since three days i.e. 04 Nov 2015.

Wg Cdr Ashwani Sarda is the owner and editor of the blog and will gradually hand over the ownership to TSEWA. Many important mails and articles have already been put in the blog which primarily deal with veteran affairs.

President described the features of the blog and urged all to utilize the Blog. He felt that as the Blog gets popular among Veterans and Citizens of the country, the visibility of TSEWA will increase.

 

(f)        Notification of OROP Issued by Ministry of Defence. President informed the salient features of the notification on OROP as under: -

            (i)        The OROP will be implemented with effective date of Jul 2014.

(ii)       The pension shall be worked out based on pensions received by pensioners in the calendar year 2013.

(iii)      The pension is based on the average of Maximum and Minimum of persons retired in 2013 in that all pre – 2013 pensioners will be fixed pensions for the same rank and same total service (NOT SERVICE IN LAST RANK). Those who get pensions above Average will be protected and those whose pensions are less will be brought upto Average.

(iv)      Arrears from Jul 2014 shall be paid in four half yearly instalments. Family pensioners and gallantry award winners shall be released arrears in one go.

(v)        Pension equalization will be done once in five years.

(vi)      Those who got PMR till now shall also be covered under OROP. But future PMR cases will not be covered under OROP.

(vii)     Single man Judicial Commission will be appointed to adjudicate on anomalies if any and will submit report with in six months.

 

          (g)         UFESM. Brig SKS Rana, VSM attended the UFESM meeting and received prominence in the meeting as well as in their Minutes of Meeting. Our representative has stressed that TSEWA will join the UFESM with the condition that we retain our Independence. This was accepted.

(h)       Vision for TSEWA. A committee headed by Cmde Sudhir Parkala has produced a structure for TSEWA at Village, Tehsil, Distict, State and National levels. The President invited comments from all members by 30 November 2015 and based on the comments amendments to the Bye laws will be drafted and after approval by GBM will be sent to Registrar for his record. The aim is to ensure every veteran and illiterate family pensioner living in remote villages with just a mobile should be able to feel they belong to a big family and have their support in case they need any help. In short it is Control at Central level from Secunderabad but decentralized execution at lower levels. State, District, Tehsil and Village Coordinators must have freedom to execute their tasks with in overall goas of TSEWA i.e. to provide welfare to all veterans.

 

(j)        Reorganisation of TSEWA office. The work load of TSEWA is increasing day by day and the Treasurer is getting bogged down by paper work at the cost of his core function as Finance Head of TSEWA. Hence the President in consultation with General Secretary has reorganized the office of TSEWA in such a manner that when any veteran applies for membership and as soon as envelope is received in the office at 143 Vayupuri, the following actions shall be undertaken : -

as under:-

(i)        Entering membership number on the envelope, membership form, cheque, vakalatanamas and covering letter so that even if one document is detached, it can be linked to the member.

(ii)       Entering particulars of member in a register manually.

(iii)      Entering particulars of member in data base in the computer.

(iv)      Giving a SMS to the new member informing of his membership number and telling him his documents are received and found to be in order. In case a document is missing indicating the same in SMS.

(v)        Sending membership form with photo to printer to make Identity card.

(vi)      On receipt of identity card after 10 to 12 days, dispatching the same to the member.

(vii)     Making list of cheques with particulars of new member and depositing the same in SBI, Bhaskar Rao Nagar daily to earn interest. Reconciling membership fee and legal fee received through NEFT and linking the money to the new member by seeking any additional details available with bank.

(viii)    Storing data base at the end of the day in portable hard disk 1 TB capacity to ensure even if virus attach takes place of computers, we have all the details.

(ix)      Maintain all details of to whom all I-Cards have been delivered.

(x)        Liaise with Chartered Accountant to ensure our accounts are maintained as per accepted accounting standards.

(xi)      Maintaining a register to record purchase of office requisites and other items required to run TSEWA like desk tops, lap tops, portable Wi Fi, chairs, tables etc in a Stock or Property Register with price.

(xii)     Maintaining expenditure incurred in a separate register on.

(xiii)    Maintain attendance register for the employees and maintain their salary register.

(xiv)    Pursue with Income Tax Department to get exemption of donations received under Sec 80(G) of IT Act.

(xv)      Maintain soft copies of membership forms, Vakalatnamas in case hard copies are damaged due to white ants or any other unforeseen contingencies.

(xvi)    Lt Col G Parvathesaam, Treasurer is to be relived of all other chores and concentrate only on the following important tasks:-

(aa)    To maintain constant liaison with SBI, Bhaskar Rao Nagar and reconcile moneys received and accounted for.

(ab)    To get Identity cards from Printer and dispatch them to members.

(ac)    To be in touch with members and give them all clarifications about their membership no, receipt of their documents or any other query.

(ad)    To exercise over all control of finances as per accepted accounting standards.

(ad)    To procure all office requisites required to run TSEWA smoothly.

(ae)    To apportion responsibilities to two or more employees depending upon work load.

(af)    To hand over all Vakalatnamas to Gp Capt CRR Sastry, our legal representative for his further action i.e.to hand over to our legal counsel in Delhi through Brig SKS Rana, VSM, our Core Gp member in Gurgaon.

(ag)    To interact and supervise work being carried out by Chartered Accountant.

(ah)    To employ additional employees like an Office boy to do errands and lady to maintain the premises of TSEWA Office.

(aj)    To deal with all visitors who want to know details about TSEWA.

 

(xvii)        Considering availability of volunteers and employees the distribution of work is as under:-

 

Col Dr GB Sethi & Col N Sitaramaiah	Data base in MS Excel
Cmde Ashok Kota	Bank work and I- Card correspondence
Air Cmde GS Nijjar	(i)   Maintenance of Data Base in MS Access (ii)   Research work in connection with redressal of grievances by obtaining details either through RTI Act 2005 or form existing sources through net etc.

       

 

(j)        With this re-organisation it is hoped work in the TSEWA office will be streamlined and members will get the best possible service with our limited staff.

(k)       Hav Harish Chandra Asthana, PO Bidhyadhar Nayak, Col PN Krishnan& Col TN Raman. President informed that he got calls from Hav Harish Ashtana, PO Bidhyadhar Nayak, Col PN Krishnan and Col TN Raman who expressed keenness for talk by the President to JCOs, OR and family pensioners on basic issues affecting them like how much is pension, disability pension, various types of family pensions, dispute resolution between widows and in-laws of family pension, action to be taken by ESM after discharge, getting Corr PPO for date of birth of spouse, pension arrears from Jan 2006 to 23 Sep 2012, OROP etc at time suitable. Accordingly the President shall visit the following places and deliver his talk:-

 

(i)      Bhubneshwaar. 14 Nov 2015. Dealing with individual problems. 15 Nov 2015 talk to all JCOs, OR and family pensioners in Bhubneshwar. All administrative arrangement are being made by PO Bidhydhar Nayak.

(ii)     Agra. 05 Dec 2015. Dealing with individual problems. 06 Dec 2015, talk to all JCOs, OR and Family pensioners. All administrative arrangement are being made by Hav Harish Asthana. Hav Harish Asthana located Sepoy Anand Mohan Mishra of Allahabad who does social service to all Ex-Servicemen and gets their problems being resolved with PCDA(Pensions) Allahabad. The President spoke to Sep AM Mishra and requested him to come to Agra to be felicitated for doing such a yeo-man service.

(iii)    Chennai. On 12 Dec 2015 a talk for Officers and ladies of Officers at Community hall in AWHO Parameshwaran Vihar, Chennai in forenoon. A talk to JCOs, OR and Family pensioners in the evening. All arrangements are being made by Col TN Ramaan.

(iv)    Sirivilli  Puttur. A talk to all JCOs, OR and Family pensioners on 13 Dec 2015. All arrangements are being made by Col PN Krishna, a fellow Bombay Sapper known to Brig CS Vidyasagar (Rtd).

(v)     Other Districts of Tamilnadu. This is being co-ordinated by Col PN Krishanan with Col TN Raman and Col CT Arasu.

 

(l)           Activities of Veterans. The President recounted the enthusiasm and hard work being put in by Hav Harish Asthana of Agra, PO Bidhyadhar Nayak of Bhubneshwar, Col PN Krishanan and Col TN Raman and hoped that their activities and the forthcoming event in various places will help in making the JCOs, OR and family pensioners to know the good work being undertaken by TSEWA.

 

(m)         Correctness of PCDA (P) Circular 547. The President said that he had written in detail about some anomalies in PCDA Circular No 547 and requested Mrs. K Damayanthi an IAS Officer of AP Cadre now Jt Secretary in Dept of Ex Servicemen Welfare  in MoD to reconsider it. She replied that there is nothing incorrect in the circular.

 

(n)          SCOVA Meeting. The Ministry of PP&PG organizes a meeting of SCOVA (Standing Committee of Voluntary Associations). The meeting held on 13 Oct 2015 dwelt on two issues affecting veterans.

(i)      Non Issue of Corr PPOs to pre – 2006 Pensioners. Min of Def (ESW) confirmed all pre- 2006 pensioners have been issued with Corr PPOs. But there are many veterans who did not get Corr PPOs from PCDAs. Therefore President has taken initiative to collect particulars of all such veterans and submit the same to Min of Def (ESW) to enable them to issue instructions to all PCDAs to issue Corr PPOs indicating pension as on Jan 2006 and as on 24 Sep 2012. A MS Excel format has already been put on the net and veterans have been requested to fill up their particulars and submit to him by Dec 2015.

 

(ii)     Abrogation of 33 year Rule to get Full Pensio by pre – 2006 Pensioners. President gave a background to this issue. Shri MO Iansu, an Ex-Servicemen on his retirement from Armed Forces was appointed in Central Govt. He retired as Dy Office Superintendent prior to Jan 2006. He filed a case in CAT Ernakulam that rule of 33 years be abrogated to pre – 2006 on similar lines to post – 2006 pensioners. Initially CAT Ernakulam dismissed his appeal.

                      He then approached hon’ble High Court of Kerala who instructed CAT Ernakulam to study the prayer in the light of judgment of hon’ble Supreme Court. CAT Ernakukalam revised their judgment and upheld contention of Shri MO Inasu. He ruled that rule of 33 years to get full pension should be abrogated for Pre – 2006 pensioners. Aggrieved by the judgment of CAT Ernakulam, Govt of India filed an appeal in hon’ble Supreme Court. HSC was pleased to dismiss the appeal of Govt of India. The summary is rule of 33 years for full pension for pre – 2006 pensioners stand abrogayed as illegal and violative of Art 14 and 16 of Constitution.

                      The effect is Sepoys, Naiks and Havildars in spite of their rank weightage of 12, 10 and 8 year do not get full pension. If this 33 rule is abrogated then all pre – 2006 Sepoys of Y Gp with 15 years service will get pension of Rs 6000 pm in stead of Rs 3883 as per Circular 547. Similarly officers who took PMR also will benefit by getting higher pension.

                      Ministry of Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances is in the process of issuing Govt notification to abrogate Rule of 33 years to all Pre – 2006 pensioners.

                      It is to be seen the date of implementation of the Govt notification. If it is to be done w.e.f Jan 2006, Sepoys of 15 years’ service in Group Y are likely to get pension arrears of Rs 1.77 lakhs.

 

2.     Points of General Secretary.

 

(a)   Present Position. Col Dr GB Sethi gave the present position of Membership that reached 1,580 and the number of litigants for AFT Case stands as on 06 Nov 2015 at  553. Every day we are receiving on average 20 to 30 envelopes.

(b)  Expenditure. A very strict control is being exercised to keep the expenditure under control.

(c)   Arrangements for Accounting. A Chartered Accountant was identified for entrusting the task of maintaining the accounts of TSEWA and a fee of Rs 25,000 per annum was negotiated. The CA accepted to maintain our accounts for which he agreed to send one or two of his staff once or twice a week at the rate of Rs 6000 pm. The house approved the arrangement and authorized the General Secretary to do the needful.

(d)  Staff. Three staff (two clerks and one support person) was appointed to cope with the ever increasing work of TSEWA.

(e)   Register of Assets. A register of Assets is being maintained for all items of value purchased.

(f)   Communication with Environment. There is a deficit of communication from TSEWA to Members on receipt of Membership fee and progress in the Organisation. He said that with new reorganisation of Office and allocation of tasks put in place, this would be remedied.

3.     Points from Treasurer.

(a)   List of Members. The List of Members will be ready in two or three days and it will be shared with all.

(b)  I Card Preparation. New membership forms with photos will be given to Printer next week for preparation of I Cards for them.

(c)   Fixed Deposits (FDs). Two Fixed Deposits for Rs 10 Lakhs (TSEWA) and Rs 20 Lakhs (TSEWA – AFT) were made for one year Duration with 7.50% interest.

(d)  Reserve Fund. A separate bank account for reserve fund was opened as already decided. This is to build up corpus to generate adequate capital which in turn will give interest to run TSEWA. All donations  received henceforth will be deposited in this account. With this we have three Savings bank accounts i.e. (i) TSEWA for membership, I-Card fee and Courier charges fee (ii) TSEWA – AFT for all legal cases and (iii) TSEWA Reservce for building up of our Corpus to run TSEWA office.

(e)   Donation for TSEWA. Cmde Sudhir Parkala has announced his donation of Rs 1000 pm to TSEWA.

(f)   Wash Room at Office. Col GB Sethi got a wash room built to our Office of TSEWA. He spent a sum of Rs one lakhs on this.

4.     Discussion on AFT Case.

(a)   Prayer in the Case. We are praying for the relief granted to Maj Gen SPS Vains to all applicant Officers who are similarly placed. Similar case was filed by 53 Maj Gens in AFT Chandigarh and it was approved by AFT Chandigarh. Now the case (appeal by UoI) is pending before hon’ble Supreme Court and is posted to a date after winter vacation of the court. Govt has given conditional relief to all Maj Gens in that their pensions have been enhanaced from minimum of Rs 30350 which is minimum as per fitment table of SAI 2/S/2008 depending upon number of increments drawn by the Gen officers.

 

(b)  Our Case and the Rationale. Pension fixing method is same for all ranks and JCOs and ORs may get more beneficial treatment. However we did not include JCOs and ORs due to very large numbers involved and the possibility of our advocate as well as the Judges getting taxed with multiple issues and categories involved. Further there is the need to be doubly sure of our victory by testing our case by filing an Application on behalf of Officers.

 

(c)   Desirable Course of Action. Now the house has to decide whether we need to wait till the 53 Maj Gen is finally decided by hon’ble Supreme Court. It is not certain when it will happen. Gp Capt CRR Sastry said that since the AFT Judgment is not stayed it has become the law of the land and Govt is acting on that decision be it conditionally. It is amply clear that we have a strong case and the Govt is on a weak wicket. Hence it desirable that we proceed with our case and file the application as early as possible.

 

5.     Injustice to JCOs/ORs & Family Pensioners. Sub Maj CH Eliah wanted some detailed information about the injustice meted out to JCOs/ORs as well as Family pensioners so that they can be educated in the regular meetings held by ESM associations in various ESM Colonies. He was requested to study the 26 tables sent by the President so that they can be brought to the notice of concerned person.

6.     Placement Offer by Bharati Axa. Col Veeramani said that Bharati Axa has openings for Insurance Agents and requested for referrals from him for this. Interested ESMs or their dependents may contact him for assistance in the matter.

7.     Interaction Meeting with JCOs, OR and Family Pensioners of Jawahar Nagar, Secunderabad. H/Capt B Joseph informed that an interaction meeting is being organsised by him in Jawaharnagar, Secunderabad on 08 Nov 2015 and requested Executive Committee and Core Gp to attend to educate the JCOs, OR and veterans.

8.     Meeting with Hon’ble CM of Telangana. Sub Ranga Reddy State Coordinator of TSEWA for Telangana informed that he is hopeful of an Ex-Servicemen meeting in Ravindra Bharati on 07 Dec 2015 for which he has extended an invitation to hon’ble Chief Minister of Telnagana and also hon’ble Home Minister.

 

9.   Decisions by the House.

 

(a)             AFT Case. The house unanimously approved immediate filing of Application before Principal Bench of AFT for correct fixing of notional pay for determining the Pension as on Jan 2006 for all Officers from rank of Lt to Maj Gens of Pre 2006 vintage  without further waiting for the decision in 53 Maj Gen case.

 

(b)       Injustice to Family Pensioners. The house after considering the views of President and others in the matter unanimously approved filing of an application in AFT Kochi, to grant enhancement of pension to family pensioners of Sepoy, Naik and Havildar. TSEWA will meet the cost of the Litigation from its funds and authorized the General Secretary to incur expenditure necessary in the case.

 

10.       The General Secretary thanked all for giving their valuable suggestions and made the meeting useful to all.

 

                                                                                                      President

                                                                                                      TSEWA

                                                                                

Place:  Secunderabad

Date :  08 Nov 2015