Lt General Upendra Dwivedi takes over as Army Chief today

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, June 29

As Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi is scheduled to take over as the Chief of the Indian Army on Sunday, it will trigger a series of changes and new incumbents will take over five top posts in the Army.

The changes are triggered by the vacancies arising due to the promotion of Lt Gen Dwivedi, who is the present Vice-Chief of the Army. He has been appointed as the next Chief replacing General Manoj Pande whose tenure, which was extended by a month, ends on June 30.

On July 1, four of the seven commands of the Army will have new commanders and the Army Headquarters in New Delhi will get a new Vice-Chief. Army commanders and the Vice-Chief are the eight senior-most military commanders after the Army Chief.

Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani, present Central Army Commander, will be the next Vice-Chief, replacing Lt Gen Dwivedi. Earlier, Lt Gen Subramani has commanded the Ambala-based 2 Strike Corps tasked westwards.

The new Central Army Commander will be Lt Gen Lieutenant General Anindya Sengupta. He is presently the Chief of Staff, Northern Command. In the past, he commanded the 14 Corps based at Leh tasked to man Eastern Ladakh and the Line of Actual Control (LAC). As the Central Army Commander, he will, among other areas, be responsible for taking care of the LAC in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The Southern Command of the Army headquartered at Pune will also get a new commander. Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth, present Commander of the Jaipur-headquartered South-Western Command, will be moved to the Southern Command. Lt Gen Manjinder Singh will be new South-Western Commander. He is presently heading the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) headquartered at Shimla. Lt Gen Devendra Sharma, the present Chief of Staff of the Army’s Western Command headquartered at Chandimandir, is being moved to ARTRAC, Shimla.