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Army chief suffers hearing loss, rules out early retirement
Army chief Deepak Kapoor suffers from hearing impairment after exposure to heavy booming sound of artillery guns during a demonstration on anti-terror operation in the US in July last year.
Army chief Deepak Kapoor suffers from hearing impairment after exposure to heavy booming sound of artillery guns during a demonstration on anti-terror operation in the US in July last year.
The disability, which puts him in a low medical category, will fetch him 20 per cent extra pension after his superannuation in March, army sources said.
Kapoor realised about his hearing impairment after he underwent examination at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in November last year.
The sources said the General visited the hospital after he experienced difficulty in hearing in his left ear. Kapoor told the doctors that he had been experiencing problems in hearing in the left ear ever since his visit to the US in July last year.
He said that it could be because of exposure to booming sounds of small weapons and gunfire during a demonstration by US troops on anti-terror operations.
Kapoor himself had fired from a few weapons during the demonstration. The Army chief had also told the doctors that he was unable to discriminate spoken words following which he was advised to use a hearing aid in his left ear.
Doctors also diagnosed that the Chief was "fit for release from service" in the medical categorisation 'H-2' which denotes a low medical category where he cannot continue in service. No other Army chief has ever been so categorised during their tenure, sources said.
