“Recruitment to fill positions in Personnel Below Officer Ranks (PBOR) in the Army is done in a transparent manner, based purely on merit. To make people realise it is entirely a foolproof system and to discourage touts, the whole process is being computerised,” Colonel Ashwani Kumar, Director, Recruiting (States), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar, and Puducherry, said here on Friday.
Speaking to mediapersons while inspecting a five-day recruitment rally being held here for candidates belonging to 11 districts of the State, the Director said the process, which began with physical tests, followed by medicals and the written examination, was in the final stages of computerisation in the State.
“Pune and Lucknow zones have already computerised the recruitment processes. In Tamil Nadu, candidates are provided computerised identification proof using biometric fingerprint. The physical and medical examination results are also computerised. What is left out is the written examination, and that also will be made online by the end of the year,” Col. Kumar said.
Transparency of system
The main reason behind this exercise, according to him, was to educate the public about the transparency of the system so that they did not continue to be misled by touts who make false promises of getting them recruitment.
Pointing out that candidates were paying touts between Rs.50,000 and Rs.1 lakh, he said: “Touts take money from candidates promising to return the same if the latter did not get selected. If a tout takes money from 50 candidates out of whom two clear the selection, those candidates who get selected purely on merit are made to believe that is because of the tout. This practice should be weeded out,” the Colonel said.
Appeal to people
He appealed to the public to not only be cautious, but also identify and hand over such touts to the Army personnel or police if they came across them.
Though the turnout at recruitment rallies held in the Northern States was higher, it was ensured that the representation in terms of final selection from North and South was balanced, Col. Kumar said.
The number selected was worked out based on the ‘Recruitable Male Population (RMP)' and not the region.
Colonel M.P. Varghese, Director, Recruiting, Army Recruiting Office, Coimbatore, said that the 2008 recruitment rally saw 1,400 candidates getting selected.
“Coimbatore zone contributes 32.5 per cent of the State's recruitment share. We are three days into this rally and we have had over 10,000 candidates walking in for the physical tests. This is a good response. From the 11 districts, Theni is a high response area, followed by Krishnagiri and Madurai,” he said.
