Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag will be next vice chief of army

The head of the Eastern Army Command, Lieutenant General Dalbir Singh Suhag, will take over from Lieutenant General SK Singh as the vice chief of army staff when Lt Gen Singh retires on December 31. 

Lt Gen Suhag himself will be replaced by Lieutenant General MMS Rai at the Kolkata-based Eastern Army Command. The Jaipur-based Southwestern Army Command will be headed by Lieutenant General Arun Kumar Sahni.

From being the vice chief of army staff, Lt Gen Suhag is also expected to succeed as the chief of army staff when General Bikram Singh retires on July 31 2014. Incidentally, his promotion to an army commander was held up for some time last year after the then Army chief Gen VK Singh imposed a discipline and vigilance (DV) promotion ban on him. The ban was later lifted by Gen Bikram Singh.

Lt Gen Suhag joined the National Defence Academy in 1970 and was commissioned into the 4/5 GR (FF) in June 1974.  He has served as a company commander in “Op Pawan” in Sri Lanka, commanded the 53 Infantry Brigade, which was involved in counter insurgency operations in the Kashmir Valley and commanded the 8 Mountain Division in Jammu & Kashmir.

Lt Gen Rai has commanded an armoured engineer regiment in the plains, a mountain brigade in the Northeast and a Rashtriya Rifles Force in Jammu and Kashmir during his career. 

Lt Gen Sahni has commanded a mountain artillery brigade employed in counter insurgency operations in the Northeast, an independent infantry brigade in Jammu & Kashmir as well as the largest corps of the Indian Army in the Northeast, responsible for security along the border with China and Myanmar.