INDIA. Mumbai: Lieutenant General SK Prashar, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Maharashtra Gujarat & Goa Area, reached Nagpur, for his two-day visit to Army Establishments in Nagpur, Kamptee, and Pulgaon (Wardha) in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra on Monday.
On arrival he was briefed by General Officer Commanding, North Maharashtra and Gujarat Sub Area, about the active role being played by Sub Area in Operations, Humanitarian Aid in Disaster Relief and Welfare of Ex-Servicemen during the COVID pandemic times. Lt Gen Prashar appreciated the preparedness and efforts of the Sub Area in extending support to the civil administration during the peak crisis of COVID and disaster relief during flood and fire incidents, an official statement said.
Later he visited Guards Regimental Centre, Kamptee in Nagpur, and paid homage to the Martyrs at the War Memorial. He was shown the recruit training and administrative initiatives undertaken, keeping all COVID protocols in place, to ensure uninterrupted conduct of training during the Pandemic thus ensuring ‘Force Preservation and Operational Readiness’.
GOC interacted with the recruits and training staff and exhorted all ranks to continue to strive towards excellence. He also appreciated the Centre’s training facilities which included the field craft circuit and the counter-insurgency village.
National Florence Nightingale Award
In another development Brigadier S V Saraswati, Deputy Director-General, Military Nursing Service (MNS), was conferred the National Florence Nightingale Award 2020 by the President Ramnath Kovind in a virtual ceremony on Monday.
She was awarded for her immense contribution to the MNS as a nurse administrator. The National Florence Nightingale Award is the highest national distinction a nurse can achieve for selfless devotion and exceptional professionalism.
Brig Saraswati hails from the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh and was commissioned into the MNS on December 28, 1983. She has served in the MNS for more than three and half decades, especially in perioperative nursing. As a renowned operation theatre nurse, she has assisted in more than 3,000 lifesaving and emergency surgeries and has trained residents, operation room nursing trainees, and auxiliary staff in her career. She has prepared patient teaching materials and improvised drape kits and suture packing for cardiac surgeries.
Brig S V Saraswati has represented the MNS in various national and international forums. She has conducted various outreach activities for the troops and has trained more than a thousand soldiers and families in basic life support. She has rendered her services at various pan-India army hospitals and United Nations Peace Keeping Forces in Congo. She has held various levels of clinical and administrative appointments before assuming the present prestigious appointment of Deputy Director-General of MNS.
In recognition of her meritorious and distinguished service in the nursing profession to the soldiers and their families, she was awarded General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Commendation (2005), United Nations Medal (MONOC) (2007), and Chief of the Army Staff Commendation (2015).
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