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The Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) in Pune is expected to get the status of Institute of National Importance (INI) this year. “We expect that AFMC will get the status of Institute of national importance within the next six months,” Lt Gen Daljit Singh, director general, Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS), said at a press conference in Pune Monday.
Lt Gen Singh said they had moved the file to the Ministry of Defence. “The work is being processed,” he added.
Responding to questions on the CAG’s query relating to the number of officers who retire every year drawing disability pensions, Lt Gen Singh said that they were addressing the issue. “This will be worked out in the next six months or so,” he said. “Based on the Guide to Medical Officers (Military Pensions), the disease and disability are assessed and work is underway in this regard,” he added.
The DGAFMS also said the pilot doctor programme has been revived which will see doctors with the forces training to fly both fighter planes and transport aircraft. “We will have two doctors each in the fighter/helicopter and transport schemes,” he said.
Training aerospace medicine personnel to fly and understand the problems faced by fighter pilots is one of the key objectives to revive this programme, the officer said.
Responding to a query related to the DNA profiling project in the Armed Forces to help identify the remains of a soldier, Lt Gen Singh said blood samples were being collected in a graded manner for archiving in the repository being maintained at the Department of Forensic Medicine at AFMC. Till date, 12 Armed Forces personnel have been identified using the reference samples from the repository, he said.
On Monday, to mark the platinum jubilee of the institute, a 108-feet-high national flag was hoisted on the AFMC campus by Naveen Jindal, former MP and president of Flag Foundation of India, and Lt Gen D P Vats (retd).
Lt Gen Narendra Kotwal, director and commandant of AFMC, conducted the two-day event that also witnessed an ‘audio-visual walk’ through 75 years of the college titled, “Timeless Reflections”, and a musical tribute, “Dhawantari Sur Tarang”, by medical cadets.
