Col Geeta Rana becomes 1st woman officer to command EME unit near China border
Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Mar, 2023 12:49 PM
New Delhi, March 9 (IANS) Col Geeta Rana has become the first woman army officer to be given the charge of an independent field workshop in the Eastern Ladakh sector close to the India-China border.
"Colonel Geeta Rana of Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers scripted history by becoming the first woman officer to take over command of an Independent Field Workshop in a forward and remote location in #EasternLadakh," Fire and Fury Corps of the Indian Army tweeted on Wednesday.
The Indian Army has recently cleared 108 vacancies for women officers to take command of independent units in the Corps of Engineers, Ordinance, EME and other branches following which Col Geeta Rana took charge of the EME unit.
Women officers will now be able to command many different units of the army.
Recently, in a key decision taken by the Indian Air Force, Group Captain Shaliza Dhami was handed the command of a Frontline Combat Unit in the Western Sector.
The India-Pakistan border area is located in this area of the Western Sector.
This is also the first time a woman officer in the Indian Air Force took charge of a combat unit.
Her statement comes after she was dragged by a man when she had gone for an inspection at AIIMS in the early hours of January 19. The man had started making lewd and vulgar gestures towards Maliwal and she was reprimanding him when he asked her to sit in his car, the man suddenly pulled the car glass up and hand of Maliwal got stuck in car's window,
The incident occurred on November 26 last year when the drunk passenger allegedly urinated on a co-passenger in her 70s in the business class of an Air India flight from New York to Delhi. Aviation regulator DGCA on January 5 had said that the conduct of Air India was unprofessional and has led to a systemic failure.
In a surprise move, the Uttar Pradesh government, on Thursday, opposed the bail plea of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra's son, who is one of the accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, in the Supreme Court. Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh Garima Prasad told a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice J.K. Maheshwari that the crime is "grave".
Last year in June, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging a clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and several others in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Rahul Gandhi, in an open letter addressing the people, alleged that the AAP government in Punjab seems unable to tackle the challenges. The Bharat Jodo Yatra which is being led by the former Congress president completed its eighth day in Punjab on Thursday.
After six days in Punjab, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra on Wednesday entered Himachal Pradesh where Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and state party President Pratibha Singh, among other party leaders, welcomed the day-long leg of the march in the state.