!!!***Ex.SERVICEMEN JOINT ACTION FRONT***!!!

!!!***Ex.SERVICEMEN JOINT ACTION FRONT***!!!: Links to this post
DEAR Sir,
I am an Ex- Aior force Flight Engineer, retired after 21 yrs i of service after the 1971 -72 Indo-Pak war.
I have joined the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Services scheme and wouldlike to write the way the working of the ECHS Polyclinics and their servies in practice.
OUr previous NDA govt by Sri Vajpayji had passed the ECHS bill and the MIlitary Directorate of Medical services has made such a procedure which is nothingbut the colonial mindset model. Tobe very frank except veryfew highranking service Officers no EX-Servicemen will ever say this system is working for the benifit of Jawans. Ec. Each Plolyclinic employs a retired Officer of the rankof Major & abve for which he is paid extra salary plus his normal Pensioon. Depending on the strength of the Number of EX-Serviemen, in the particular District, 2 or three MBBS doctors are employed again on salary.
Apart from that each ECHS clinis employs five or six people as clerks /pharmacists etc. A building has also to be rented from private party except where there is a military hospital.  All this establishment are provided to run the unit as a military unit. but the expenses running into crores in a year is taken out of the budget.
Where as in the case of CGHS(Central Govt Employees Health Services, there is no such wasteful organisations.
In ECHS the patients to report tothe ECHS, REgister the details with a clerk, get the slip from the Regn c.lerk and wait for the Doctor , wocah only prescribe for simple illnesses. For serious cae the Doctor will duggest a Referral to the Empanneled Hospital outside. Remember the patient comes from far off places inthe District which may be 10 or 20 K.M. away from the ECHS Clinic. After the referralis approved by the Officer I/C the patient goes to the Hospital which again is sometimes 2 to3 KM away. the Hospital can onl;y check the patient and prescribe th emedicines, but cannot supplythe medicines. The patient has to come backto the ECHS and gain get the ECHS Doctor's approval and go to the ECHS pharmacy. If the medicines are available then it is supplied or else he has to come back again when the ECHS gets the medicine by local purchase. The local purchase is done by a supplier who gets the contract yeraly on the basis of whogives the cheapest medicines gets the contract. no matter if the medicine is spurious or fake. There is strict military instruction theat the patient cannot insist on the same medicine prescribed by the Speciallist in the Hospital. Main reason there is always corruption in entire set up. Jawans cannot complain because of MIlitary discipline.
Ihave written detailed letters to both our REspected Prime Ministerand The Defence Miniaster. I hopethey will take immediater action and cancelltheentire procedure and allow all the Ex-
servicem,en withthe Smaart Card togo direct to the Empaneeled Hospitals and avoid large amount money wastage and helpthe men to get treated fast without the hardshipif military discipline. Iam sure many officers will object to htis becauise they will lose their clout .
Hope Sri Narendra Modi will see the reasonfor such Parkinson's methos of administration and will scrap the system and helpthe por Jawans to get easy and prompt treatment when required. the present system is nothing but a way to loot and help some with the benifits. Jai Hind.

My Life's Journey contd.,

Though many peole had already booked theirtickets to go by bus, theexact date whenthetrips will start was not known. Also one of the conditions was that noone willbe allowed to carry more thatn 20 Kg . of luggage. However many of my clos friends had already purchased the tickets and all of them called me and told me that they hae decided to go. Meanwhile the BBC channelwas showing every day the miseries of the people stuck at theAmman airport without any facilities like water shelter or food inthe scorchingheat.

My Life's Journey contd.,

The next whole week was all depressing news , many people trying somehow to get accross the border and many trying to drive in their cars and many of them getting looted en-route by the

palestinians as well as the Iraqis. People were falling sick and no medical facilitiy available in Kuwait. Whatever foodstuffs were available were all getting finished. some of my frineds who were leaving gave me some of the foodstuffs left with them. Things were getting more and more grave and many people who were not brave enough to withstand the fear started acting hysterical to the extent that they were ready to face any problems on the way but somehow they wanted to try and go home. However there were about 10 to15 people who ensured that they will stay till the end with me, come what may. So we made an arrangement that all of them will either contact me evryday or they will come to my place at least once in two days. We also pledged ourselves that each of us will help each other in every way possible . Many days we all used to have food together either in my flat or in one of their flats.

In the meantime, the same self appointed guatrians (leeches in real sense) managed to go to Iraq and arranged a contract that the Iraqi transport company who had stolen the entire fleet of transport buses from Kuwait will arrange the transportation of Indians from Kuwait to Amman in Jordan . For this the Indian businessmen headed by an Auto spares dealer was made the person in-charge to arrange selling of tickets, and organize the trips. The charges were fixed @ 100 Iraqi Dinars per head. A Notice was put up at the Indian School tothis effect. Since there were lots of houses left empty by the fleeing Indians , he arranged one of the houses to be his office for booking the tickets. The conditions are that once booked no refunds will be given, for any reason. This person also started assuring the peole that once they reach at Amman, they will be picked up by the Indian Embassy and they all will go to India by Air India flights free of cost.

This has given some hopes to many of the families and they all rushed to book the tickets in advance. This has created another big business for the palestinians and few Bhoris, that they were the only people having Iraqi Dinars . They started bargaining the price of the Iraqi Dinars . Many Indians had to sell their entire house-hold items to make enough cash to buy tickets for their entire family.

To be contd.,

My Life's Journey contd.,

Now, since majority of the people in our building has left, leaving their cars all parked in the building, has created another problem ,because some of the people from pakistan,who were co-workers of the people who has already left for India, started takng the cars belonging to Indians. When questioned they kept telling that they will return the cars when the problem gets over.

Knowing fully well ,it can never happen ,because once the car goes to Pakistan, it is anybody's guess that it will never return. Just think of the problem I have to face, on the one hand the real owners will think that I have joined hands with the palestinians and disposed off the cars. Anyway they took away two cars belonging to someone else and also the tyres from another car also was taken away.

BY 12th Sept. the BBC channel kept giving the details of the crisis which was very much depressing.

To make it more worse BBC started bringing in some so called specialists and their, analysis of the situation only helped the people to get more frieghtened.

To be contd.,

My Life's Journey contd.,

By 10th Sept, almost everyone from my building has left Kuwiat ,either by road , or by bus through Baghdad and furhter on to Jordan. Eventhough the sights of the people suffering at Jordan was being telecast over BBC channels, still people were rushing somehow to get home .

So by 11th morning, we found that only three of us in ht ewhole building,that too on the front wing I was the only one left and two people ,one Mr.Abu Nabi and another palestinian Mr. Fahthi were left in the rear wing of the buidling . All other 24 flats in the building were locked and the occupants have left their cars parked in the building and gone to their home countries., majority to India and few others toPakistan.

Now we three were in real danger of palestinians looting the flats that are locked, more than the threat from the Iraqi army . So we decided to find someone to come and stay as a FARASH ( the person who looks after the building) so that the intruders will be at least hesitate to ransack the building immediately.

With this purpose, my self and Abu Nabi went around and luckily we found one Egyptian who agreed to come and stay as the farash for our building, on condition that we pay him a min. of 30 Iraqi Dinars per month. Since there is no other way we agreed , but both of us did nothave any Iraqi dinars. I decided to sell my Volkswagon car for 300 Iraqi Dinars to another Sudanese man and Abu nabi agreed thathe will somehow manage to foot half the salary for the Farash.

Ofcourse from now onwards all of us ,myself, Abu Nabi, and the Egyptian Farash all three have to be on night duty in the building. The only consolation was that Mr. Abu Nabi used to make tea with firewood and we used to keep drinking black tea the whole night, to keep awake.

To be contd.,

My Life's Journey contd.,

Today the 5th Sept. there was news that the Iraqi Govt. has opened aTelegraph office in Kuwait.

So myself and few of my friends went to the telegraph office and we all sent telegrams to our family in India stating that they should not worry at all, and we are all safe here at Kuwait.

But my friends, majority of them were all very mucgh worried and they wanted to somehow leave Kuwait. Ofcourse they cannot be blamed for such a fear complex since none of them had seen any such situation in life. However I tried to narrate my experiences in the Indian Airforce as a Flight Engineer and had seen real war during 1962,1965 and also the latest Indo Pakistan war for the Independence of Bangladesh during 1971-72 But they were not convinced that one day Kuwait will be freed from the Iraqis. Well, I left the decision to themselves since each one of them had their own priorities.

Little did they know that the moment they vacate their houses, the Pestinians were waiting to loot the houses . About 12 people were convinced with my suggestion and they promised to keep my company till the end whatever that may be.

Then on the 7th Sept. one Mr. Dawood Rashid , a Kuwaiti friend of mine visited me and he was of the opinion that the Kuwaitis those ranaway to saudi by road, made a big mistake and acording to him they should have stayed back to fight the Iraaqis.

On the same day there was the Dubai T.V. was showing the scenes of the Indian's plight at the

temporary camps at Iraq- Jordan Border, without water and people were fighting each other toget a sip of water. the sight as very much ghastly and anyone whohas seenthat willnever attempt to go through the same route again. To make matters worse the children were shown almost collapsed in the extreme heat and dust storm.. It was the most pitiable sight.

Then a friend of mine had another problem, that he had puchased a brand new car hust two days prior to the invasion and the poor guy was almost in a shock seeing the palestinian boys trying to scratch the car all over. That was their normal pastime , that when they see any Indians having a new car they somehow make sure that the car will be scratched all over, over night.

So he approached me if another sudanese friend of mine staying in my building would like to buy the same for reasonable price. When I asked Mr. Abu Nabi the sudanese person ,he said first he would like to see the car, so I took him to the building where the person who wanted to sell his car. somehow they agreed for a price of KD1500/- and the transaction was over.

We came back early since on that day it was again my turn to guard our building.

To be contd.,

My Life's Journey contd.,

On the 31 st of August , every one started telling that the Iraqi govt has decided to stop supplying fuel at the petrol stations for expatriates. It was not known if this news was a rumour or truth. However, not taking any chances, I went with a frined of mine and filled up the Volkswagon car of mine and also got a 20 ltr.can filled up with diesel for my Mercedes, just in case I had to travel by car to India, if things gets worse to that state. Nothing very much happened further on this day.

On the 1st of Sept. the news came that Iraq has released few western women and children and they were being flown to New York, London Paris etc. by Iraqi planes. The next day also nothing much was heard or happened in Kuwait, except we used to hear the sporadic gun shots from distance.

On the 3rd Sept. early morning one friend called me to wish Happy Onam, the famous Kerala harvest festival, supposed to be the day King Mahabali is supposed to visit his people .As per the Mythology, during the rein of King Mahabali the land of Kerala was like heaven , where all were leading a life of sublime bliss. Then the heavenly Gods were worried that since there is no sin, no theft, no death, Lord Vishnu came in the form of a small Brahmin boy and asked the King Mahabali for a small piece of land measuring 3 feet. The King gladly agreed and asked the boy to choose wherever he wants. The boy took one step that encompassed the entire Earth and for the second step he took the entire Akash, and he was waiting for the third step without any place tokeep his foot, then the King offered his head for the third step. But knowing that it was none other than Mahavisnu who has come to test the King , the King requested the Lord that he may be allowed to come and visit his people at least once in a year. That day is celeberated as Onam by all keralites wherever they may be on that day.Incidently Onam day also happened to be my Birthday as well as my elder daughter,Asha's birthday. That made me all the more home sick and I was very moody thinking of my wife and children back home. The thought that at least they are safe in India was some consolation, though thinking about them made me very sad. I missed my loving wife and children very much, and since Iwas not able to be with them onthis auspicious and special day for all Keralites. To make it worst on the same day it was my turn of night duty in our building.

On the 4th sept. morning Iwent tothe Indian School and collected my son's plus 2 marks list.

The next day one of my friend suggested that we should conduct a mass prayer for everyone's safety and welfare . so all of us about 20 odd people gathered in my flat and we had an hour of silence and prayer.

To be contd.,

My Life's Journey contd.,

On 30th morning one of the residents in our building, a Pakistani national wanted me to accompany him to the town centre, just to have a look at the damages the Iraqi army had inflicted . I readily agreed so that I can have a first hand look at the situation . Right from the salmiya road towards town every shops , and every kuwaiti house on both the sides of the road were looking charred by the fire and not a single local people were to be seen. In the town centre all the big shopping malls were completly burned, all the glass doors and windows shattered, and the sight was very painfull to see. All the banks were burned down and we saw a crane lifting the big iron safe out of the bank to be loaded on to a big open truck. then on return we took another road thru the zoo. Our heart seemed stopped for few seconds seeing the number of animals including a small elephant and horses all lying dead on the roadside. some horses were seen cut into pieces, presumably killed for the meat by the Iraqi soldiers. Because the Iraqi soldiers were not provided any food or shelter bythe Iraqi govt. they have to fend for themselves. No wonder they have killed and eaten the horse meat.

On the way we were stopped by some Palestinians and asked to show our identity card. Since my friend was a Pakistani, he told them that we are Pakistanis wiorking for the Co-operative dept and they allowed us to proceed.

By the time we reached back , many of my friends were eagerly waiting to hear about the scenes of the town. One gentleman was trying to organise a private bus and arrange a group to go to Amman by road on paymentof KD. 175/- per head. Since not many had the cash, that poject did not work out. In anycase I had already declined the offer to travel with them.

In the afternoon couple of friends called me to enquire my welfare and also someone wanted some reassurance if everything will be fine in few days. My suggestion to all of my frineds were that knowing the world opinion from the TV broadcasts , it is sure that the international agency will definitely involve themselves in this conflict and surely the Iraqis have to vaccate Kuwait.

Secondly, since the Iraqis are not attacking Indians bodily, it is better we all stay put and keep a low profile for some time.

To be contd.,

My Life's Journey contd.,

25th August '90

I called up the Deputy Engineering Director of Kuwait Airways and suggested that KAC flights could be operated from Bombay to other destinations, by calling all KAC Tech staff who are either on leave or have reached India at that point of time. He thanked me for this wonderful suggestion and said that he heard something on the same lines are being discussed by the KAC management at London and Cairo.

Next two to three days there was no other news except the looting of the flats left by the expatriates and stealing cars were going on in full swing. The common sight was that huge long container trucks were loading whatever they can put thier hands on and taking them to Jordan by the palestinians.

Our normal night guard duty at our flat is still going on and today the 29th August was my turn to be on duty from 11 P.M. to 5 A.M.

on the 30th morning a friend of mine telephoned and asked if I would like to accompany him to travel to India by car. But since I had been getting calls from the Iraqi Airways asking me to join them for the operation of the fleet which they had taken away from Kuwait on the noght of Aug.2nd '90 itself. They had entered my office and probably taken some of the personal business card or some other papers wherein they have got my tel.number. I had been telling the people who were calling me from Baghdad, that the person they are looking for had already left for India and I am only a co-operative store worker. In such a circumstances if I happen to cross Basra checkpost by car , there is no doubt that they will take me by force to Baghdad. Hence I had to politely refuse my friend's offer to go bycar. Exactly as I had suspected the very next day there was news that the Iraqis have captured one Pakistani who was checked at the border and unfortunately they found an ID card of Kac and he was immediately taken to a prison.

To be contd.,

My Life's Journey contd.,

August 23rd.1990.

Early morning we got the information that one Indian businessman who is an importer of foodstuffs to Kuwait has arranged to sell foodstuffs to those who are interested to buy,since all the usual shops were either closed or looted by the Iraqis and palestinians. Ofcourse this was a ploy in the guise of helping Indians, but the real truth was he had a large volume of food stuffs in his godown, which in any case will be looted or taken away by the Iraqi army very soon. So he devised an idea to sell them to the needy Indians at Kuwaiti Dinar prices.After all Indian businessmen are very good at such crafty ideas. I understand the same gentleman is still doing business in Kuwait.

Since there was no other source to get foodstuff anywhere else, we ,few friends went and bought some rice and milk powder etc.

August 24th.

The news of closing and cutting off all water and electricity connections to all the western Embassies were received withshock arround the world. Immediately the Security council condemned the Iraqi action.

fortunately on the same day the order was cancelled and the connections were restored.

To be contd.,

My Life's Journey contd.,

August 23rd.1990.

Early morning we got the information that one Indian businessmanm