AFVOA Newletters of Year 2003

Page 95 of 170 and as health schemes go, will also contribute to better health of the Veterans. Talk by Lt Gen VK Dua, PVSM, AVSM, VSM . Introduction 8. Lt Gen VK Dua, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, DG Discipline, Ceremonials and Welfare at Army HQ addressed serving and retired personnel of the Armed Forces in Chennai on 30 Aug 2003 in the precincts of MH Chennai. Gen Dua gave a clear comprehensive status report on the ECHS. At the end of the talk practically no questions remained to be answered. Background 9. The present population of ex-Servicemen pensioners is in the region of 16 lakhs, with an annual increment of approximately 1, 00,000. Thus far, ALL ex servicemen, regardless of category, have been allowed to avail facilities for treatment in the Services medical establishments, regardless of the fact that the Armed Forces Medical Services are not established, funded or staffed for providing this cover. Recognising the necessity of providing for such cover within the authorised establishment, successive Chiefs have been pushing for Government approval of what is bound to be a massive one time and recurring expenditure. It has helped their strenuous efforts that all retired civilian Central Government employees are covered by the CGHS. Finally, the Chiefs of Staff committee headed by Gen S Padmanabhan was able to obtain, as a culmination of efforts spread over decades, in principle GOI sanction for the ECHS by the end of 2002. 10. The period since December 2002 has been taken up in fine-tuning the ECHS, answering objections by as many as seven ministries, and obtaining final sanctions for the scheme as it stands at this point in time. During this period, the one time subscription that prospective members of the scheme will need to pay has been enhanced, this due to the insistence of the GOI. Who is eligible to joins the ECHS 11. Twin conditions apply: a) The prospective member must be an ex Serviceman/widow/surviving spouse of an ex Serviceman b) The prospective member must be in receipt of pension/family pension paid from under the head of the Defence Services Estimates. 12. The above simultaneous conditions automatically exclude categories of ex servicemen such as ECOs, SSCOs etc. The intended purpose is to bring the ECHS in line with the schemes applicable to Central Government employees of other categories (including railway men), as also to ensure that the system is not misused or overloaded. Time frame for the operationalisation of the ECHS 13. The ECHS will be progressively operationalised at 104 Military Stations and 123 non- military stations, the limiting factor during the initial period being the speed with which infrastructure is made available. However, it has been decided that a prospective member will have till 31 March 2005 to decide whether or not he/she desires to join the ECHS. After this