Major reshuffle in Army, Lt Gen Shantanu Dayal takes charge as Deputy Chief of Staff
(This Article is originally published by the new Indian express)
Indian Army has undergone a major reshuffle at the top within the Army Headquarters and at the various other formations including the Corps Commanders, administrative and training institutions witnessing the change of guard.
A new Deputy Chief of Army Staff (DCOAS) has taken charge on the first day of New Year 2021.
Lt Gen Shantanu Dayal has taken charge as the new DCOAS assuming the position from January 1, 2021.
Lt Gen Shantanu Dayal was the Corps Commander of the Tejpur based 4 Corps and is taking place of Lt Gen SS Hasabnis who superannuated on December 31.
The other significant change is in the newly-created Department of Military Affairs (DMA) with Chief of Defence Staff as its first Secretary.
Lt Gen Taranjit Singh, the first Army officer to join as the Additional Secretary in the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) under the Ministry of Defence, superannuated on Thursday, December 31.
He was the Deputy Chief (Operations) in the Integrated Defence Staff which has become the part of the DMA since the formation of the post of the Chief of Defence Staff.
Lt Gen Anil Puri took charge in his place who till recently has been the Corps Commander of Army’s 12 Corps. Lt Gen PS Minhas is takin charge as the 12 Corps Commander.
A Corps, in the hierarchy of fighting formations, is the first all arms and services combined formation which can conduct independent operations.
Indian Army has 90 Lieutenant General and has a total of Lt Gen Tumul Verma, was the General Officer Commanding (GoC) of 101 sub-area, has taken charge from Lt Gen Anil Kapoor as the new DG of the Electrical, Mechanical and Engineering (EME) Corps.
Lt Gen Rajiv Sabhawal, Signal Officer-in-Charge (SO-in-C) has retired and has been replaced by Lt Gen MM Bhurke. Lt Gen Bhurke was the Commandant of Military College of Telecommunication Engineering. The SO-in-C is the overall in-charge of all signal-related issues of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The National Cadet Corps (NCC) has Lt Gen Tarun Kumar Aich as its new Director-General as Lt Gen Rajiv Chopra superannuated on December 31, 2020.
Commandant Staff College YVK Mohan has retired and Lt Gen MJS Kahlon will take his place. Earlier, he was the DG of Mechanised Forces.
Soon, the two Officers Training Academies at Gaya and Chennai will have the new Commandants.
The Commandant of Officers Training Academy (OTA), Gaya, Lt Gen Sunil Srivastava superannuated on December 31 and is to be replaced by Maj Gen VG Reddy on his promotion as Lt Gen on January 7, 2021. He is the Deputy Commandant of OTA Gaya currently.
Also, the Commandant of OTA, Chennai position, was lying vacant since few months, been announced as Lt Gen MK Das to take charge soon.
Major General Gautam Chauhan took charge as the first Additional Director General (Human Rights) at the Army headquarters and will report directly to the Army vice-chief. He will be the nodal officer to examine every case of human rights within the 13 lakh-strong Army.
