Indian Army top brass gets major reshuffle as new year begins; new DCOAS to take charge

The Indian Army has undergone a major reshuffle at the top within the Army Headquarter and at the various other formations including the Corps Commanders, administrative and training institutions witnessing a change of guard. 

Lt Gen Shantanu Dayal will soon take charge as the new DCOAS. Lt Gen Dayal is currently the Corps Commander of the Tejpur based 4 Corps. Once a new Corps Commander is appointed,  Lt Gen Datal will take 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.

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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 taking 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 a total of 90 Lieutenant Generals. Lt Gen Tumul Verma, who 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Lt Gen Rajiv Sabharwal, Signal Officer in Charge (SO-in-C) has retired and has been replaced by Lt Gen MM Bhurke.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. SO in C is the overall in charge of all signal-related issues of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

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Lt Gen Tarun Kumar Aich becomes new NCC Director-General

India’s biggest youth organisation National Cadet Corps (NCC) has Lt Gen Tarun Kumar Aich as the new Director-General as Lt Gen Rajiv Chopra superannuated on December 31, 2020. Commandant Staff College YVK Mohan retires and Lt Gen MJS Kahlon takes his place. He was the DG 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.

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Also, the Commandant of OTA, Chennai position, was lying vacant since few months, been announced as Lt Gen MK Das to take charge soon. Interestingly Major General Gautam Chauhan took charge as the first Additional Director General (Human Rights) at the Army headquarters in New Delhi 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 Indian Army.

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(Image credits: PTI)