President Murmu to fly sortie in Sukhoi-30 tomorrow

New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu, who is on a three day visit to Assam, will perform a sortie on the Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft from the Tezpur Air Force Station tomorrow on April 8, 2023. 

"On April 8, 2023, the President will make a sortie on the Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft at the Tezpur Air Force Station," an official said. 

According to the Indian Air Force, Mrs Murmu will be received by Chief of Eastern Air Command, Air Marshal SP Dharkar. Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria and CM Himanta Biswa Sarma will also be present on the occasion.

Earlier, former Presidents APJ Abdul Kalam, Pratibha Patil and Ramnath Kovind had made similar sorties in Sukhoi 30 fighter aircrafts at the IAF station in Pune, Maharashtra, during their tenure as the President.

It is for the first time that Tezpur air force station is hosting the President of India for any sortie. The station comes under Eastern Air Command of the IAF. It is one of the air force stations that looks after air defence on India's border with China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan.  

The programme is scheduled at a time China and India are engaged in a squabble over Arunachal Pradesh. China released a set of new names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh as part of its efforts to reemphasize its claim over the state. This is the third time that China 'renamed' places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls "Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet".

India has rejected the Chinese move and asserted that the state has "been" and will "always be" an integral part of India.

Tezpur in North Assam shares a boundary with Arunachal Pradesh.

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