AFVOA Newletters of Year 2008

Page 26 of 56 one at ease wi th a t inge of humor in wh i ch with great subt lety, as would be expect ed, he made much of sapper Of f i c e r s . 29. He then commended the AFVOA for its uniqueness in being the only one of its type in the country. He Wished he could have one like thi s in each s tat ion of Southern Command. In this cont ext he commended the GOC ATNK&K Area for throwing a chall enge to Secunderabad to build one in s ix months time. 30. Moving on to more import ant topics he said that he had received a number of compl aints and suggestions for improvement regarding the functioning of ECHS. The GOC ATNKK Area was fully in pi cture regarding the issues involved and he would be taking necessary actions . He desi red that the Polyclini c in Chennai should be the best in the Command next only to the one in Vellore. 31. He expressed di smay that the ECHS was not providing Death Cer tifi cat es to deceased veterans . He said that he would be taking up the matt er in the concerned quarters In the same breath he also st at ed that the plans for a DSOI in Chennai are in it s final s tage of consideration. 32. On the operational front he said that he had just come af ter conducting a major exercise EX BRAZEN CHARIOTS in the West ern Desert s. He stated that our Army at present was fully trained and equipped to meet and fulf ill any task that may be entrust ed to it . We are in a full s tat e of readiness and are capabl e of facing any and every chal lenge that may be thrown at us. 33. He, however, expressed unhappiness over the fact that the number of cadets f rom, Tami l Nadu passing out f rom various t raining academi es to become commiss ioned officers was shockingly low. Much Small er s tat es had huge numbers of entrants joining up as offi cers. He appealed to veterans to canvas more in school s and coll eges and to motivat e youngst ers to join up as of ficers in the three servi ces. Address by the GOC ATNK&K Area 34. Maj Gen EJ Kochekkan, AVSM, SM, VSM, GOC ATNK&K Area in hi s address thanked the GOC-ln-C for being kind enough to grace the occasion. 35. On the import ant points regarding ECHS he said he was wel l aware of the l acunae in the existing syst em and stated that he would be doing his utmost in the ensuing months to bui ld up on the exis ting polyclini c at Chennai and making i t a model one as desired by the Army Commander. 36. He thanked the Vet erans for turning up in such large numbers and hoped that they were comfortabl e. He also wi shed them all happiness: Vote of Thanks 37. The Secretary brought the Meeting to a close aft er proposing a Vot e of Thanks to the GOC and his enti re HQ for having cont ributed so much resources and ef forts to make the meeting such a grand success. Interaction and Dinner 38. The GOC-in-C was kind enough to spend over an hour interacting with the vet erans. It was an admi rabl e treat wat ching the General Of fi cer in action. He fi elded questions on a myri ad military subj ects from knowl edgeabl e vet erans. The next moment he was l ending an ext remely pati ent ear to veterans