Major General Somnath Jha (retd)

Ahmedabad, March 6

A retired Army officer is cycling across the country to pay homage to the defence personnel who laid down their lives for the nation.Major General Somnath Jha (retd) decided to pay homage to each of the around 21,000 Armed Forces personnel, who have lost their life since Independence, by cycling for two minutes for each of them.Jha’s last posting was at Ambala Cantonment, from where he retired in September last year. He spent nearly 37 years in the Army.“I decided to travel across the nation by pedalling two minutes for each of the 21,000 martyrs, thereby travelling for 42,000 minutes across most parts of the country,” Maj Gen Jha, who is currently stationed in Gandhinagar, said.Jha said so far he has covered 30,500 minutes and plans to cover another 11,500-odd minutes by the end of April.While Jha is riding solo, he is being provided logistics support by a team of seven, including his wife Chitra, who are accompanying him on a car. — PTI