New Delhi: Lt Gen Manoj Pandey has become the first engineer to be appointed as the new Army Chief, news agency ANI reported.
Manoj Pandey, the current Deputy Chief of the Army Staff, will replace General Manoj Mukund Naravane, who will retire by the end of this month. General Naravane’s 28-month term ends on April 30.
Pandey will be the first officer in the Corps of Engineers to take over as the Chief of Army Staff.
Lt Gen Manoj Pandey becomes first engineer to be appointed as Army Chief pic.twitter.com/lHh5vWBW2G
— ANI (@ANI) 18 April 2022
“The government has decided to appoint Lt Gen Manoj Pandey as the next Chief of Army Staff,” the Defense Ministry said on Monday.
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Pandey, a National Defense Academy graduate, joined the Corps of Engineers in December 1982.
Lt Gen Manoj Pandey commanded an engineer regiment during Operation Parakram in Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
The massive mobilization of troops and weapons along the western border, known as Operation Parakram, brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war after the terrorist attack on Parliament in December 2001.
During his 39-year military career, Lt Gen Pandey has commanded an Engineer Brigade in the Western Theater, an Infantry Brigade along the Line of Control, a Hill Division in the Ladakh Sector and a Corps in the Northeast.
Prior to assuming command of the Eastern Command, he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command.
However, no decision has been taken on the next Chief of Defense Staff (CDS). The post is lying vacant since the last CDS Gen. Bipin RawatDied in a helicopter crash in December last year.