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N C Vij appointed new army chief

He will succeed General Sunderrajan Padmanabhan and will take over on December 31, an official announcement in New Delhi said.

The first army officer hailing from Jammu - the home of the gallant Dogras - Vij is an alumni of the National Defence Academy and was commissioned in the Dogra Regiment on December 11, 1962.

He has the rare distinction of having commanded an anti-insurgency mountain corps as well as one of the three strike corps in the country.

On promotion to the rank of commander, Vij served as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Command. During that tenure, he had personally supervised the rescue and relief operations in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Gujarat in January last year.

A consummate strategist, he was awarded the Uttam Yudh Seva Medal for his performance while directing the Kargil operations in 1999 as Director General Military Operations.

As DGMO, Vij also conceived Operation Khukri to rescue trapped elements of the Indian peace keeping contingent, which was part of United Nations force in Sierra Leone.

It was during his tenure as commander of India's only Dimapur-based counter insurgency corp that the United Liberation Front of Assam militants started surrendering in big numbers, which rendered the movement virtually ineffective.

At present, he is vice-chief of the army staff.

Lt Gen Vij's elevation would be followed by a major reshuffle in the army's top hierarchy with Lt Gen Shantanu Choudhary, presently GOC-in-C of the Shimla based Army Training Command, likely to take over as vice-chief of army staff.

Lt Gen J J Singh, presently commanding a strike corps is slated to replace Lt Gen Choudhary as commander of the ATC and Director General (Infantry) Lt Gen Hari Prasad at Army Headquarters is slated to take over as commander of the Northern Command in place of Lt Gen R K Nanavaty who retires in February.

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