Author: UNI
Publication: Daily Excelsior
Date: April 20, 2005
URL: http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/05apr20/news.htm#7
President A P J Abdul Kalam today
presented gallantry and distinguished service awards to 63 servicemen in
a simple and poignant ceremony in the glittering Ashoka Hall of the Rashtrapati
Bhawan here.
The ceremony, the second installment
of the Republic Day-2005 awards investiture, was made yet more memorable
by Dr Kalam shaking off protocol to walk down from the dais to present
the honours to the next-of-kin of those awarded posthumously.
The singular honour also came the
way of Shaurya Chakra Awardee Capt Perikalamkattil Abraham Mathew, seriously
incapacitated in anti-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir. Capt
Mathew, who sustained serious head injuries in an encounter with terrorists
in Rajouri district, is only able to walk with great difficulty.
The President awarded 14 Param Vishisht
Seva Medals (PVSMs), three Kirti Chakras (two posthumous), one Uttam Yudh
Seva Medal (UYSM), one Bar to the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM), 25 AVSMs
and 19 Shaurya Chakras (12 posthumous).
The Kirti Chakra winners were Wing
Commander Sudhir Kumar Sharma of the Indian Air Force, who took his Cheetah
helicopter well above its flying ceiling of 23,000 feet to rescue a group
of injured mountaineers off Mt Kamet in Ladakh.
Nonchalantly disregarding the adverse
conditions - deteriorating weather, severe turbulence, jet stream winds
exceeding 120 kmph and a low margin of power - wing Cdr Sharma located
a small unprepared, sloping and exposed ridge to land on his mission of
mercy. The intrepid aviator repeated his feat twice to save all the three
climbers from certain death, and in the process, also managed to set a
world record.
Among the other two recepients -
both awarded posthumously - were Lt Kanavdeep Singh (10 Sikh), who led
his platoon to the rescue of an ambushed patrol party but were pinned by
a fire from another group of terrorists in an inaccessible position. The
officer, who had managed to kill one hostile, ignored his considerable
injuries to crawl over to and operate the rocket launcher to kill one more
and injure the third terrorist, before succumbing. His mother, Rajbir Kaur,
came to receive the award.
Lt Dheerendra Singh Atri, of the
Army Service Corps but posted to 3 Rajput, was leading a search party through
dense jungle in Kupwara district of JK when concealed terrorists fired
at them. Sparing no thought to his safety, Lt Atri ferociously charged
the attackers, killing two of them and putting them in disarray.
Seriously wounded in the ensuing
firefight but determined to protect his men from harm, he managed to kill
one more terrorist before he succumbed. However, his gallantry inspired
his men to kill five more, eliminating the whole group. His father, Brig
T S Atri - a serving officer - received the award on his behalf. The winners
of the PVSM include the Strategic Forces Command chief Air Marshal Ajit
Bhavnani, the Air Officers Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of the IAF's
South-Western Air Command and Training Command Air Marshal S K Jain and
Air Marshal Subhash Bhojwani respectively, the Deputy Chief of Army Staff
Lt Gen Mohinder Puri, Chief of Staff of the Army's Western Command Lt Gen
P K Grover, Air Defence Artillery DG Lt Gen C S Chima, Defence Intelligence
Agency (DIA) Chief Lt Gen Avtar Singh, Navy's Chief of Personnel Vice Admiral
Venkat Bharathan, Army Dental Corps DG Lt Gen R C Dhir and former Army
Service Corps DG Lt Gen (Retd) Jagdish Chander.
Former Engineer-in-Chief of the
Army, Lt Gen (retd) Mathew Mammen - who played a key role in setting up
the fence across the Line of Control (LoC) and DG, manpower Lt Gen Rana
Sudhir Kumar Kapur, involved in implementation of the recommendations of
the A V Singh Committee on cadre reforms in the armed forces, have also
been conferred the PVSM.
The General Officer Commanding-in-Chief
(GOC-in-C) of the frontline Northern Command Lt Gen Hari Prasad was awarded
the UYSM, while former 'Gajraj' (IV) Corps GOC Lt Gen Anup Singh Jamwal
- tipped to take over command of the new corps coming up in the Jammu area
- was awarded a bar to his AVSM.
The prominent winners of the AVSM
included 'Chetak' (X) Corps Commander Lt Gen O P Nandrajog, XXI Corps Commander
Lt Gen Harcharanjit Singh Panag, Nagrota (XVI) Corps GOC Lt Gen Sudhir
Sharma, recently-appointed military adviser to the UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, Lt Gen R K Mehta, former Delhi Area GOC Lt Gen Mathew Thomas,
now heading the XXXIII corps in the North-East, Southern Naval Command's
Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Rustam Faramroze Contractor and Former Commandant
of the Army's elite counter-insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, Brig
(retd) B K Ponwar, who is now in charge of training police personnel in
Naxalite-affected states.
Also conferred the AVSM was India's
sole medal winner in the Athens Olympics, Maj (now Lt Gol) Rajyavardhan
Singh Rathore, who won the silver in the double-trap shooting event.
