Lieutenant General Rana Pratap Kalita will be the new chief of the Eastern Army Command, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Army. Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita, who hails from Assam, will replace Lt Gen Manoj Pandey. Lt Gen Pandey has been appointed as the Deputy Chief of the Army Staff. The proposal to make Lieutenant General Kalita the head of the Eastern Army Command has been approved by the Central Government.
Director-General of Police, Assam, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta also tweeted for Kalita and said, "Heartfelt congratulation and best wishes to Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita to head eastern command
Lieutenant General Rana Pratap Kalita will take over as the new Chief of the Eastern Command of the Army on 31 January 2022. The Army's important Eastern Command is deployed to guard the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in the northeastern states of the Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh regions. Its headquarter is in Kolkata.
The Central Government has recently announced the appointment of Lieutenant General Manoj Pande, the current Commander of the Eastern Army Command, as the next Vice Chief of the Indian Army. Lt Gen Pande will replace Lt Gen CP Mohanty, who is going to retire on 31 January.
Lt Gen Pande took over as the Chief of the Eastern Command of the Army on June 1, 2021. He replaced Lt Gen Anil Chauhan. Lt Gen Kalita had earlier served as the Chief of Staff (COS) at Fort William, the Eastern Army Command Headquarters in Kolkata. Now the responsibility of the entire Eastern Command will be on his shoulders.