In an effort to speed up efforts to fight the corona pandemic, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday granted emergency financial powers to field commanders to set up and operate quarantine facilities and hospitals besides procuring related equipment.
Moreover, the Cantonment Boards all over the country are maintaining 40 general hospitals with 1,240 beds and have thrown open these facilities to the civilians as well as the residents of the military stations.
Giving details of the defence minister invoking special provisions, officials said here he granted Emergency Financial Powers to the Armed Forces to empower them to meet the current Covid-19 situation in the country.
These powers will help Formation Commanders to establish and operate quarantine facilities, hospitals and undertake procurement, repair of equipment and items besides provisioning of various services and works required to support the ongoing effort against the pandemic.
Under these powers, Vice Chiefs of Armed Forces including Chief Of Integrated Defence Staff and General Officer Commanding-in-Chiefs(GOC-in-Cs) and equivalents of all three services have been given full powers, whereas Corps Commanders/Area Commanders have been delegated powers up to Rs 50 lakh per case and Division Commanders and equivalents have been delegated powers up to Rs 20 lakh per case.
These powers have been devolved initially for a period of three months from 1st May to 31st July 2021.These are in addition to the emergency powers delegated to the Medical Officers of the Armed Forces last week.
As per the order, emergency financial powers were delegated to Director General Medical Services (Army/Navy/Air Force), head of Medical Branches at Formation/Command Headquarters of Army/Navy/Air Force/Andaman & Nicobar Command and Joint Staff including Command Medical Officers of Navy and Principal Medical Officers of Air Force (Major General and equivalent/Brigadiers and equivalent).
The delegated financial powers are as follows. DGsMS (Army/Navy/Air Force) – Rs 500 lakh, Major General & equivalent – Rs 300 lakh, Brigadier & equivalent – Rs 200 lakh.
As regards the contribution of the Cantonment Boards, officials said presently 39 Cantonment Boards (CB) are maintaining 40 general hospitals with 1,240 beds.
The CB hospitals at Pune, Kirkee and Deolali with 304 beds have been designated as dedicated Covid hospitals. Cantonment General Hospitals (CGHs) of Kirkee, Deolali, Dehuroad, Jhansi and Ahmednagar have been designated as Covid care centres with 418 beds. A dedicated Covid health centre at Dehuroad is ready and would become functional soon, while ICU facility with six beds is being set up at CGH, Kirkee. Oxygen support is available in 37 CBs and presently they have a stock of 658 cylinders.
These measures were taken after Rajnath held review meetings on 20th April and again on 24 April and directed the Armed Forces and various other establishments of his ministry to extend all possible assistance to the civilian administration to tide over the present situation. He underlined that people look up to the Armed Forces in times of crisis as they have great hope and trust in them.