Dear Members,

1. This being the first News Letter in the New Year, I convey my good wishes to all the members and pray and hope that the Year 2013 will bring good luck, good health and prosperity to all members and their families.

2. Our Website is working well and there are number of hits every day which indicates that the members are making good use of the facility. We have received number of encouraging messages from members appreciating launch of our own website. We are now making efforts to make it more dynamic and expand its capacity to store more data so that members can access the important circulars, policy letters etc easily and remain in touch with the latest developments. We have already uploaded few important policy letters regarding CGHS facilities, modified pension parity for pre-2006 retirees and some letters of general interest etc. To improve our Website further, I would request members to send their suggestions/feedback to make this site more useful and user friendly.

3. For our members who are pre 2006 retirees, there is a good news that the Govt has agreed and given modified parity as recommended by 6th CPC to all the pre 2006 retirees with effect from 24 Sep 2012. This will enhance pension for most of our members. The office memo has been issued vide letter dated 28 Jan 13 and the procedure for implementation has also been issued on 13th Feb 13. The Govt has issued instructions to PAOs for expeditious payment of revised pension. Copies of both these letters are available on our website. The efforts are on to get the instructions made applicable with effect from 01 Jan 2006 instead of 24 Sep 2012 for which some of the pre-2006 retirees are filing court cases.

4. We have again reminded PCDA (Pension) Allahabad to issue the revised PPOs and hope revised PPOs will be issued soon.

5. One point which has been agitating my mind for quite some time is that our Forum has been named as Forum for Excellence for former MES Officers. It is true that Forum is appropriately named as Forum for Excellence as we have lot of talented potential but we have not tapped this potential fully as yet. We have made a beginning in exhorting the creative potential of our members and some of the members have come forward and made useful contributions. I would sincerely request all members to give suggestions so that we make best use of the time during our quarterly get-togethers to satisfy their intellectual and spiritual hunger. To start with I suggest that we organize talks on subjects like healthcare, spirituality, life management, issues concerning socio-economic concerns of our society to make some contributions towards nation building. In the next Get-together on 24th Feb 13, we have arranged a lecture on “Sprituality and Life Management” by Dr Dipak Shukla, Director (Administration) PSRI. He is an eminent Hospital Management professional and is working on “Science and Spirituality” since many years. I am sure his talk will be beneficial to all the members.

6. As regards voluntary contribution of Rs 500/- from the members to build up a working capital for the Forum, I request all members to contribute. Those members who have not yet paid their contribution, I request them to do so in the next Get-together organized on 24th Feb 2013.We had collected an amount of Rs 27,500/- in our last get-together on Nov 2012 towards voluntary contributions. A major part of this amount has already been spent in payment of launching of our Website, printing of greeting cards, birthday and wedding anniversary cards etc. Your contributions will help the Forum to perform better and also make arrangements for more useful activities like lectures, organize some picnics or tours etc. I would request members to encourage the retiring officers whom they may know to become members of the Forum to increase our strength.

7. During the last quarter four new members have joined the Forum. We welcome them. Their names are: Shri G N Saxena, EE(Retd), Shri V P Gupta, SE(Retd) , Shri Narendra Kumar Sharma, AGE E/M(Retd) and Shri K C Saxena,SBSO (Retd). The present strength of the Forum has increased to 203. However, we have also lost one of our members. His name is: Shri B R Sakhuja, ARCH, on 01 Dec 12. We convey our heartfelt condolences to his family.

8. The present Executive Committee is finishing its tenure of two years in February 13. The elections for the Next Executive Committee will be held in the next AGM being held in the month of May 2013 as per decision taken in the last AGM in the month of February 2012 after the accounts and balance sheet duly audited and certified by the chartered accountant is circulated in the month of April 13.

S K Thakral  
President