Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday (30 April) invoked special provisions and granted Emergency Financial Powers to the Armed Forces to empower them and speed up their efforts in tide over the current COVID-19 situation in the country.

These powers will help Formation Commanders to establish and operate quarantine facilities, hospitals and undertake procurement, repair of equipment, items, material, stores, besides provisioning of various services and works required to support the ongoing effort against the pandemic, the Defence Ministry said on Friday.

Under these powers, Vice Chiefs of Armed Forces including Chief Of Integrated Defence Staff To the Chairman Chiefs Of Staff Committee (CISC) and General Officer Commanding-in-Chiefs (GOC-in-Cs) and equivalents of all three services have been given full powers, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, Corps Commanders and Area Commanders have been delegated powers up to Rs 50 lakh per case and Division Commanders and Sub Area Commanders and equivalents have been delegated powers up to Rs 20 lakh per case.

These powers have been devolved initially for a period of three months from 1 May to 31 July. These are in addition to the emergency powers delegated to the Medical Officers of the Armed Forces last week.

The emergency powers were sanctioned to the Armed Forces last year too when the COVID-19 pandemic first broke out. This had helped the Armed Forces tackle the situation faster and in an effective manner.