A significant reshuffle with new appointments among the top brass of the Indian Army will be effected from 1st March, which includes two commands and a new Vice-Chief of Army Staff (VCOAS).
Lt Gen M V Suchindra Kumar, currently Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Strategy) at the Army Headquarters, has been elevated to the level of Army Commander and appointed as the new Vice Chief of Army Staff. The current VCOAS, Lieutenant General B S Raju, has been appointed South-Western Army Commander. He will succeed Lt Gen Amardeep Singh Bhinder when he retires from service by the end of February. Lt Gen Raju had a 10-month stint as the Army Vice Chief and will have another eight months in the new office. He took over as the Vice Chief on 1 May last year after current Army Chief General Manoj Pande moved to his new office on promotion.
In other appointments, Lt. Gen. N S R Subramani, presently the Chief of Staff of the Udhampur-based Northern Command, has been promoted to an Army Commander and appointed as the next Central Army Commander in Lucknow. According to Army sources, he will take over charge from Lt Gen Yogendra Dimri, who also superannuates by the end of this month.
While in another significant reshuffle, Lt Gen Rashim Bali has been appointed as the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, also known as the Fire and Fury Corps, which takes care of security along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in the Ladakh sector, the sources said. Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta, the currently Corps Commander, 14 Corps will become the new Chief of Staff, HQ Northern Command, Udhampur.
Ravi Shankar
