Lt Gen C.P. Mohanty relinquishes command of the Southern Army

Lieutenant General C.P. Mohanty relinquished the command of Southern Army on 31 January. In a solemn ceremony on his departure, the Army Commander paid homage to the martyrs by laying a wreath at the National War Memorial, Pune. The General Officer is moving to Delhi to assume the coveted appointment of Vice Chief of the Army Staff.

The Army Commander has given a significant impetus to operational and logistics issues to enhance the operational efficiency of Southern Command, whose area of responsibility includes 11 states and four Union Territories. Some of the major achievements during his tenure include Covid-19 relief operations at multiple location in the area of responsibility, undertaking massive flood relief and rescue operations in 27 districts spread over three states, evacuating more than 10,000 persons to safety in last year’s flood situation. Conduct of multiple joint training exercises with Navy and Airforce and also with friendly foreign countries.

In spite of the pandemic situation, the Southern Command has maintained a high state of operational readiness at all times. Relations with civil administration and Police of each state reached an all-time high in the past year particularly while tackling Covid-19.

Besides operations, the General also resolved a large number of pending land issues and enhanced synergy between the defence forces and various Civil Organisations through proactive and focused engagement. Administrative issues like education, discipline, and medical were given due emphasis wherein development initiatives involving schools, professional colleges and hospitals got initiated and its manifestation in Pune includes improvement of Army Law College and Army Institute of Technology.

There was a major focus on increasing the health infrastructure, a new state of the art multi-speciality tertiary care Command Hospital project was completed and is now well established to serve the medical needs of serving and veterans. Mamun Mohanty, as Regional President Southern Command Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA), ensured the well-being of families in Southern Command. She focused on improvement and creation of infrastructure for skill development with a view to enhance employability of the spouses of soldiers. She was also at the forefront in conceptualisation and execution of multiple schemes for the Veer Naris and specially-abled children.

The recent creation of “Utkarsh” a multi-activity centre for all ranks and families with state of art gymnasium, gaming zone of kids and multi utility facility for families will go a long way in improving quality of life. All ranks of Pune Cantonment gave a befitting and dignified farewell to General Mohanty and his wife.