Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh today received COVID related inputs, in the context of  Northeast Region, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh from former Army Generals and Air Marshals.

Prominent among those who interacted and offered their views during the Video Conference meeting were General V P Malik, former Chief of the Army Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha former Chief of the Air Staff of Indian Air Force, Lt General Sharath Chand, former Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt General DeependraSingh Hooda, former GoC Northern Command, Lt General Ranbir Singh, former GoC Northern Command, Lt General Rakesh Sharma former DGOL and Major General S K Sharma former Chief of Staff, Northern Command.

In his introductory remarks, Dr Jitendra Singh said, most of the former senior Generals and Air Marshals did not only have first-hand knowledge of the peculiar situation in the terrains of both Jammu & Kashmir and North Eastern Region, but as prominent members of civil society and eminent citizens after superannuation they also enjoyed distinguished role as opinion makers. He said, their inputs and suggestions were not only valuable for improving our efforts in the fight against Corona but could also give us an insight of some of the aspects viewed by them from their own perspective.
 

Dr Jitendra Singh updated the senior Defence personnel that in the North Eastern Region 5 out of 8 States have already become Corona free while the other 3 States had not added any new Corona positive case in the last few days, which means very soon the entire North Eastern Region could become Corona free. Similarly, updating on Jammu & Kashmir, he said, in the entire Jammu region only 15 Corona cases were remaining while in Kashmir Valley certain pockets like Bandipora, etc. were still showing concern but steadily coming out of it.

All the participants were unanimous in their opinion about the commendable manner in which the government under Prime Minister Sh Narendra Modi had effectively led the war against COVID pandemic. They also appreciated that the entire Northeast Region was among the major big areas of India which had gradually come out of the Corona onslaught. Similarly, they also appreciated the effective administration under the present regime in Jammu & Kashmir which had helped in containing the enormity of the Corona spread.

About the lockdown, general opinion was that the relaxation should be gradual. Similarly, for North East, the general advice was that sealing of the borders with other countries like Bangladesh had been beneficial.
In both North East and Jammu & Kashmir the attitude of the common people was described as favourable. Similarly, views were also expressed about the option of online shopping and online classes.

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VG/SNC