As the nation iswitnessing the unbearable stretch of medical infrastructure due to the secondwave of the pandemic, the Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh on Friday has invokedthe emergency powers enabling the Indian Army to battle against the crisis tosave precious lives.
Under these powers,the Indian Armed Forces are allowed to set up and operate medical facilities,quarantine centres for the civilians. Also, it enables the Indian Army toprocure Covid specific equipment and resources required to perform the urgenttasks.
Rajnath Singh took toTwitter to announce this and wrote, "To empower the Armed Forces and speedup their efforts in the nationwide fight against COVID 19 situation, RakshaMantri Shri @rajnathsingh invoked special provisions and granted EmergencyFinancial Powers to the Armed Forces today."
“These powers willhelp Formation Commanders to establish and operate quarantine facilities/hospitals and to undertake procurement/ repair of eqpt/ items/ materials/stores, besides provisioning of various services and works required to supportthe ongoing effort against COVID,” the tweet added.
It may be noted herethat in the last year similar powers were given to the Armed Forces to combatthe first wave of virus in India.
However, this move ofDefence Ministry comes days after Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawattold PM Narendra Modi that all medical personnel who have retired from theirservices in the Armed Forces in the past 2 weeks will be called back to serve againat the Covid facilities near their homes.
Amid the oxygencrisis, CDS Rawat also assured that oxygen cylinders with the military will bediverted to the hospitals to save the lives of those in danger.