Lt Gen Mahajan visits 3 EME Centre, pays tribute to martyrs

Bhopal, Dec 1: 'Naib Subedar Daniel Koshy... Craftsman Harchand Singh... Major Davias W...' the names on the War Memorial at the Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) Centre in nearby Bairagarh go on and on.

These Indian heroes, who made the supreme sacrifice in conflict zones ranging from colonial-era Burma (now Myanmar) to Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka, were yesterday remembered at a solemn ceremony during which Director-General Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers Lieutenant General Arvind Mahajan laid a wreath at the memorial as part of his two-day visit to the 3 EME Centre.

''The approximately 12 m-high memorial was built in a span of just 90 days and unveiled on September 4, 2000 by the then DGEME Lt-Gen M R Kochhar,'' an Army officer said.

Set in an exquisite garden, the memorial is approached through gates that proudly display the EME coat of arms and motto 'Karm hi dharm' (Work is Supreme Duty).

An all-religion prayer meet was also held.

Lt-Gen Mahajan's is Senior Colonel Commandant of the 3 EME The buglers played the 'Last Post', which was originally a bugle call used in British Army camps to signal the end of the day.

Gen Mahajan was accorded a warm welcome by Centre Commandant Brigadier P K Jaggia. He was introduced to the Centre's officers and briefed by the Commandant about training activities. Later Gen Mahajan visited training areas and various regimental institutions.

He reviewed the military and technical training being imparted to recruits and young soldiers. He interacted with outstanding sportsmen.

Sepoy V Biju was 23 when he bagged a weightlifting silver at the Commonwealth Championship in Malta. It was probably the happiest moment of his life when he received the medal, but like a true Indian soldier, he remembered better the sense of pride that surged through him when the tricolour was hoisted near the winners' podium.

Participating in the 62-kg category, he lifted a total of 252.5 kg. ''My twin aims are to receive a gold at the 2008 Olympics and also an Arjuna Award,'' he had told UNI. Sepoy Biju was Tamil Nadu state champion in 2001. Gen Mahajan also inspected a guard of honour at Kala Ground and interacted with both serving and retired EME officers.

The Corps, born in 1943, is responsible for providing engineering support to army during war and peace.

Over the years, there has been a phenomenal rise in the sophistication, quantum and variety of military hardware. The Corps has effectively met the challenges arising from the proliferation of such multi-disciplinary high technology military hardware through continuous evolution of its engineering support system.

The Corps has performed well whenever called to aid civil authorities in an emergency or national calamity. The recovery of Island Express coaches from Ashtamudi Lake in Kerala, during all-India postal strike, repairing bio-medical and life-saving equipment and appliances of civil hospitals in the war-ravaged Jaffna peninsula, resulted in wide appreciation.

During the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Brig M L Garg, a retired EME officer, rendered yeoman's service with utter disregard for his own life, for which he was awarded the Kirti Chakra.

UNI