AFVOA Newletters of Year 2003

Page 54 of 170 upon the latest developments regarding the ECHS, of which more would follow from Brig Bhore. He welcomed the new President, and commended his “democratic” election. True to the role of a Patron who is not a mere decorative figurehead, remembered only when it is time to present shawls or mementoes, Gen Sundara Rao once again pointed out that while the AFVOA was doing well, it needed to complete tasks, which remained incomplete, by reasonably set target dates. In this connection, he mentioned the pending registration of the AFVOA as an Association, the revision of the telephone directory (which he hoped would see the light of day at least by the next “pongal”), and the issuing of the articles on the 1962 War and the “Suryasthaman” booklet. He felt that we had adopted the grammatical “future continuous tense” as our motto (the chronicler of this part of the newsletter may be forgiven for interjecting his personal views here, and he sincerely hopes that editorial broadmindedness will permit them to be expressed, and will not excise them with the proverbial scissors - we in the AFVOA seem to have been infected with the SARS like virus, picked up from non uniformed people, of being rather long on promises and plans, and rather short on performance! The chronicler wonders whether this is a function of the number of years that we have spent, after retirement, removed from the Service milieu! Have we forgotten that whilst in uniform, we were expected to perform efficiently, the efficiency being marked both against quality of output as well as time taken. It is only on CIVVY STREET that we have endless nit-picking and this country’s history, post Independence, is littered with many more derelict foundation stones than there are completed projects). The Patron mentioned that the GOC, who was to arrive a little later in the evening, had received orders promoting as the Chief Of Staff of the Central Command at Lucknow. 8. At 1900 Brig VA Subramanyam spoke about the travails of the Garrison Retired Members of the Madras Gymkhana Club. There were at present about 2000 resident members and 440 garrison retired members. The status and rights of the garrison retired members was not at par with that of the civilian members, specifically in relation to the wards of civilian members being permitted to become “invitation members” at the age of 28, which facility was denied to wards of garrison retired members. Voting rights of the garrison retired members were severely curtailed, as they were permitted to vote only on matters that concerned themselves alone, and not on all matters like passing of accounts, proposing new members et all. In order to stifle the growing discontent among garrison-retired members, the Gymkhana Club issued show cause notices to Brig VA Subramanyam and Lt Co L Balakrishnan, YSM, as to why they should not be suspended from the Club. It might be worth mentioning here that this is a club started by the Armed Forces for their use and was being controlled by them. A case had been filed on behalf of the garrison retired members in the Chennai High Court, and in order to sustain the cause and to obtain justice for the Armed Forces (upon whose land the Club exists!), it was requested that members join in with a minimum contribution of Rs 100 towards membership. As court battle involved heavy legal expenses, members were requested to contribute liberally to that Association. The Brigadier read out a list of contributors who had paid well in excess of the minimum amount right at the outset, as the fund opened for subscription. ECHS 9. At 1905, Brig JK Bhore, ADMS at the HQ ATNKK&G Area, commenced a talk on the ECHS. The purpose of his talk was to make clear any doubts regarding the ECHS as announced, without going into any policy matters that were purely within the domain of the Services HQ at New Delhi. While there was reasonably enough time available till the GOC’s eventual arrival at 1940hrs for the Brigadier to clear the air, the time available to him was