New Delhi: Indian Army’s Director General, Military Training Lt Gen Ajai Singh took over as commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN) while the Eastern Army Command by Lt Gen Manoj Pande on June 1. Lt Gen Pande replaced Lt Gen Anil Chauhan as he was superannuated on May 31.
Lt Gen Ajai Singh
Lt Gen Singh joined Armoured Corps in 1983 due to his family tradition and have had volunteer tenures in Counter Insurgency in the Kashmir Valley and on the China border in Sikkim.
In 1998, he was selected to go to Angola as a United Nations Military observer. He also volunteered for a tenure with the Infantry on the Siachen Glacier.
He had also qualified on the Mountain Adventure as well as Advance Mountain Warfare courses at the High Altitude Warfare School, Sonamarg. The General officer had participated in Operation Vijay (Kargil) and Operation Meghdoot (Siachen) as an Infantry Rifle Company Commander.
Andaman and Nicobar Command is the only tri service operational Command which is a sensitive geographical geo-political time. The military as well civil infrastructures are being augmented in an effort to keep an eye on Chinese activities in the Indian Ocean Region.
Lt Gen Manoj Pande
Lt Gen Pande was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in 1982. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy.
The General officer was a part of Operation Vijay and Operation Parakram during his over three-decade long career and had also commanded an Engineer Regiment along the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, an Engineer Brigade as part of the Strike Corps, an Infantry Brigade along the Line of Control, a Mountain Division in the high altitude area of western Ladakh and a Corps deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as also in Counter Insurgency Operations area in the northeast.
Lt Gen Anil Chauhan
He is superannuating on Monday. He is being succeeded by Lt Gen Manoj Pande.
Before taking over as the Eastern Army Commander last year, Lt Gen Chauhan was the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO).
He was one of the main architects of ‘Operation Sunrise’, wherein Indian Army and Myanmar Army conducted joint operation against the insurgent groups operating near the border areas.
