Army Colonel is felicitated for scaling seven summits'

Srinagar: Colonel Ranveer Jamwal, the first Indian Army officer to complete the record of scaling the highest mountains of all seven continents, arrived to a rousing reception in his native town Jammu on Monday.

Colonel Jamwal, from the Army’s Jat Regiment, has scaled Mount Everest thrice, of which two were done in a year, and recently he has been to Mount Vinson in Antarctica, his final frontier to complete the record of scaling the ‘Seven Summits’. Col. Jamwal said that he will now tread upon the mission of “exploring the unexplored heights of the world”.

Dozens of activists and supporters of two different Jammu-based organisations and likeminded outfits received the ‘son of the soil’ at the airport in the winter capital chanting ‘You’ve done us proud’. He was taken to the city in a procession.

Later, an impressive function was jointly organised by Team Jammu and Shri Amar Kshtriya Rajput Sabha in Jammu to felicitate Col. Jamwal amid slogans of ‘Long live India’ and ‘long live Colonel Ranveer Jamwal’. While speaking on the occasion Team Jammu chairman Mr Zorawar Singh Jamwal criticised the State government for not organizing an official function in honour of Col. Jamwal on his arrival in hometown after scaling Mount Vinson. “People like Col. Ranveer who have done the country and the State proud are not asking for any monetary gains but must receive love and respect from their people,” he said adding that Col. Ranveer and the ilk are role models for the youth of Jammu and other parts of the country and the government “must form a policy to project such personalities so that they could guide youth towards nation building”.

BJP’s state vice president K.R. Narayan Singh, who is also a former president of Rajput Sabha alleged that the successive governments have deliberately ignored “grand achievements” of the youth of Jammu region.