Karnataka   

Army worried over poor response to recruitment rally in Kolar

KOLAR: The lukewarm response to the week-long recruitment rally, which concluded here on Wednesday, has left Army officials worried. The Army had organised the open rally at Sir M. Visvesvaraya District Stadium here to fill about 300 vacancies in different categories. The Headaquarters Recruiting Zone, Bangalore, expected large number of youths from the areas under its jurisdiction — Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Kolar, Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajnagar, Ramanagara and Chickaballapur districts. Candidates from Kerala, and Union Territories of Mahe and Lakshadweep were also eligible to appear for some of the tests.

“The turnout was not encouraging,” Brigadier J.C. Kushalappa, Deputy Director-General of Recruitment (States) said. While the response to such rallies in north Karnataka region was overwhelming, it was very poor in southern Karnataka. About 8,000 candidates took part in the rally held at Bagalkot under Belgaum recruitment zone, while the number is only about 2,000 at Kolar rally, Brig. Kushalappa said.

Lack of awareness among public about recruitment procedure, and probably motivation towards getting recruited into the military forces, seems to be some of the reasons for the poor response, he said.

Of the 2,000 youth who attended the rally, approximately 200 have been selected for written examination to be conducted at Army School, Bangalore.

While on the one hand the low turn out has perturbed the Army, on the other it has expressed grave concern about the physical fitness of the youngsters. Though some have qualified in running, beaming and such other tests, they could not enter the final stage since they did not meet the requirement of chest measurement, Colonel Anil Nautiyal, Director of Recruitments, who was in-charge of the Kolar rally, said.

Lack of physical education and sports in schools and colleges was the main reason for why the most of the youths are unable to pass through the rigorous qualifying tests in such rallies.

While stressing on proper physical education at school level, Col. Nautiyal told The Hindu that the Army headquarters would take up this issue with the State Government, particularly with the Department of Education. “Regular sports activities at schools and colleges help the youth to maintain their physique and that in turn assist them to qualify in the tests conducted for recruitment in Armed forces,” he said. Stating that that mindset of the younger generation to join easy and lucrative jobs might also be another reason for why they are not attracted to become men in uniform, the Army officers tried to clear the wrong notion in this regard.

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