Govt extends tenure of Army Chief Gen Pande by one month
New Delhi, May 26: Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande will continue to serve in the post till June 30 with the government on Sunday extending his tenure by one month, in a rare and unusual move that came amid the Lok Sabha polls.
Gen Pande was to retire from service on May 31.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved one-month extension in service of Gen Pande, the defence ministry said.
The extension to Gen Pande came nearly five decades after the then Indira Gandhi-led government extended the tenure of Army Chief Gen G G Bewoor by one year in early 1970s in first such instance.
In view of extension given to Gen Bewoor, the next in line Lt Gen Prem Bhagat, known to be a fine military officer, retired from service without becoming the Army Chief, according to military experts.
"The Appointments Committee of Cabinet on May 26 approved the extension in service of Chief of the Army Staff Gen Manoj C Pande for a period of one month, beyond his normal age of superannuation (May 31) that is up to June 30 under Rule 16 A (4) of the Army Rules 1954," the defence ministry said.
Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi, currently serving as the Vice Chief of Army Staff, is the senior-most official after Gen Pande.
The senior-most official after Lt Gen Dwivedi is Lt Gen Ajay Kumar Singh, the Southern Army Commander.
Both Lt Gen Dwivedi and Lt Gen Singh are course mates.
Lt Gen Dwivedi, who has vast operational experience along the frontiers with China and Pakistan, assumed charge as Vice Chief in February succeeding Lt Gen MV Suchindra Kumar.
Gen Pande took charge as the 29th Chief of the Army Staff on April 30, 2022 after Gen MM Naravane retired from service.
Before assuming the charge of the top post, Gen Pande was serving as the Vice Chief. He is the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to helm the force.
In his distinguished career, Gen Pande also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, which is India's only tri-services command.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, he was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) in December 1982.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
RS Chairman accepts merger of 7 AAP MPs with BJP
New Delhi (PTI): Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan on Monday officially accepted the merger of seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs with the BJP, reducing the strength of Arvind Kejriwal's party in the Upper House to three.
After this transition, the BJP's strength in the Upper House has increased to 113.
Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahney, Swati Maliwal, and Rajinder Gupta are the seven MPs who have merged.
ALSO READ: J-K: Six held with drugs, assets worth Rs 73 lakh attached in Udhampur
The Rajya Sabha website now shows that the seven MPs are part of the BJP list of members.
The seven MPs had on Friday petitioned the Rajya Sabha Chairman to be treated as BJP MPs after the merger and the same has been accepted, sources said.
The AAP had on Sunday moved a petition before the RS Chairman seeking the termination of the membership of the seven MPs, who had switched sides.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh said he has submitted a petition to Chairman Radhakrishnan seeking the disqualification of the seven party MPs in the Upper House, who recently quit the AAP and announced their merger with the BJP.
On Friday last, the AAP suffered a jolt when the seven Rajya Sabha MPs quit and announced merger with the BJP, alleging that the Kejriwal-led party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals.
