AWWA president Renu Bharadwaj at the farewell programme of GOC Dalip Bharadwaj organised by Army School. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, March 22: Army School, Ranchi, will miss its patron, outgoing General-Officer-Commanding (GOC) Major-General Dalip Bharadwaj, from tomorrow.

Bharadwaj and his wife Renu Bharadwaj, who was also the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) president, were accorded an emotional adieu today by the school students on its Rameshwaram campus. Bharadwaj is to leave for Mhow in Madhya Pradesh on March 28.

Bharadwaj, who held the position of the school?s patron by virtue of being the GOC, had initiated many projects including the construction of a music room and a Rs 7 crore building at the Deepatoli Cantonment.

?During his tenure, he not only got the school financial aid, but he would also drop in at the school at regular intervals and interact with the teachers and students,? principal C.J. Jacob said.

Bharadwaj, a former boxing champ, had also promoted extra-curricular activities in the school in a major way.

Bharadwaj said he would keep interacting with the Army School management in the future also.

?I would like to keep in touch with the school management. I would also like to keep track of the academic performance of the students in the board examinations wherever I live,? he told the assembly of teachers and students.

Lauding the GOC?s wife for her contributions towards the school, teachers said it was only due to her tiring efforts that the school introduced special counselling sessions for its students.

The school now awaits its new patron, GOC Major General Shankar Ghosh, to join.