New Delhi: A fleet of fighter jets belonging to the Indian Air Force on Sunday carried out fly-pasts over major cities and towns while military choppers showered petals on leading hospitals across the country as part of a mega exercise to express gratitude to lakhs of doctors, paramedics and other front-line workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.
In Kerala, from where most of the nurses in the country hail, flower petals were showered by an Indian Air Force helicopter on two hospitals in the state capital.
At around 10 am, the Sarang helicopter of the IAF flew past the Government Medical College Hospital and the General Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram to honour doctors, paramedics, sanitation staff and other front-line workers battling coronavirus.
It hovered over a statue of 'mother and child' at the medical college hospital and moved towards the main entrance showering petals.
The lightweight chopper flew past over the hospital once again and left for the General Hospital to honour the COVID-19 warriors there.
At 7:30 pm four Indian Naval and Coast Guard ships, anchored in the centre of the channel opposite the Marine Drive in Ernakulam district of Kerala, carried out a traditional illumination and firing of green flares accompanied by sounding of siren to underline Indian Navy’s solidarity with the Corona Warriors.
In addition, the Souther Naval Command's band played some famous numbers on a warship berthed opposite the CSL and Venduruthy bridge, the iconic symbols of Kochi.
In Thiruvananthapuram also, the Indian Coast Guard honoured the front-line workers by illuminating the ships at Shangumugom area from 6:15pm to 8:30pm.
The thanks-giving activities started with laying of wreaths at the national police memorial in Delhi to honour the police personnel deployed in the enforcement of the nationwide lockdown, officials said.
The Indian Air Force and Navy helicopters conducted fly-pasts in a number of cities including Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Patna, Lucknow, Srinagar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Thiruvananthapuram.
A large number of helicopters belonging to the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy dropped flower petals over leading hospitals treating coronavirus patients across the country including in Delhi, Shillong, Guwahati and Mumbai. Army's military bands also performed outside leading hospitals.
In the evening, the Eastern Naval Command and Western Naval Command illuminated a number of ships docked at major ports.
Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on Friday had announced that the three services will carry out a series of activities to thank the "corona warriors".
In a series of tweets, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh complimented the armed forces for carrying out the activities to show respects of the armed forces to the front-line people fighting the pandemic.
"I thank the Armed Forces for their special initiatives like fly pasts, showering flower petals and several other performances to express gratitude towards medical professionals, police and other frontline warriors. The entire nation stands united in these challenging times," Singh said.
He said the "frontline warriors" are doing commendable work in strengthening India's fight against COVID-19.
(With inputs from PTI)
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