Army Wives? Welfare Association president Renu Bhardwaj administers polio drop to a child at Dipatoli Cantonment. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Commander Brigadier S.P. Sharma will bid farewell to the Artillery Brigade on November 30 after commanding the brigade for two years.

Brigadier Sharma has held many important posts throughout of his career such as Brigade Major of the Artillery Brigade, command of a medium regiment and deputy commander of an artillery brigade and many others.

Army officials pointed out that he has greatly contributed towards the development and beautification of the Dipatoli Cantonment and started the ex-Armymen Health Scheme in two polyclinics at Ranchi and Jamshedpur.

Pulse polio campaign

President of the Army Wives? Welfare Association (AWWA) Cockerel Division Renu Bharadwaj inaugurated a pulse polio campaign at the Polyclinic in Dipatoli Cantonment on November 27.

Army officials said the campaign was the army?s endeavour in the national pulse polio campaign, which kicked off on the same day.

The army undertook the campaign to immunise children and spread awareness as the disease could be contracted if one was not vaccinated on time.

The children of Sugnu village, adopted by the army a couple of months ago, were given pulse polio drops.

HIV lecture

A series of lectures on HIV/AIDS were held at Dipatoli as well as the Namkum army headquarters from November 9 to 12.

The programme was organised in collaboration with the state health department, the medical branch of the army AWWA.The lectures were given by health department officials, who dealt with different aspects of the disease, its occurrence, symptoms and its prevention.

The lectures were specially meant for the women of army jawans. The lectures were conducted in three batches, two at Dipatoli Cantonment and one at Namkum.

Distribution

The members of the AWWA distributed footwear, clothes and medicines to the people of Sugnu village on November 9, which has been adopted by the association for its development recently.

Mulina Gungesh, Madhu Mathur and Madhu Rawat distributed the items to the villagers.

Apart from distributing deworming tablets, doctors and attendants of the mobile army field ambulances were also present on the occasion who also examined those who had some ailments.

AIDS awareness

Concerned by the increasing number of AIDS patients within the men in uniform, a team of Army Medical Corps (AMC) officers arrived at the state capital on November 9 for spreading awareness about the virus.

The 10 bikers of the AMC who participated in the motorcycle rally also conducted a workshop on AIDS awareness in the Military Hospital.

The bikers, all officers of the army, navy and airforce, interacted with jawans and new recruits at the Namkum based hospital and informed them about the virus.

The team led by Lieutenant-Colonel R.S. Hiwale had started from Lucknow on November 8 on their mission.

The biking team will tour Calcutta, Sambalpur, Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and reach Delhi on World AIDS Day, observed on December 1.

The bikers will conduct seminars and programmes in all of the military cantonments en route to spread the message.

Tips for teeing off

In a bid to popularise golf both among army personnel and civilian population as well as the children, a two-day golf coaching clinic was organised at the golf course at the Dipatoli Cantonment on November 6.

The clinic witnessed the participation of not only a large number of children, but also the wives of army personnel.

Sponsored by the State Bank of India, Dipatoli branch, the participants will be taught about the nitty-gritty of the game by Mohammad Islam, a pro from Patna.

Fun and food

The AWWA?s Diwali Mela was organised at the Sugnu grounds on October 30.

The major attraction was the large number of food stalls opened by different units specialising in cuisines of different parts of the country.

The mela was inaugurated by AWWA president Renu Bharadwaj who was accompanied by General Officer in Commanding, Cockerel Division, Major-General Dalip Bharadwaj.

They visited each and every stall in the mela and enquired about the items.

There was also a display of fireworks on the evening of October 31.