Indian Army Recruiting Office would follow the revised recruitment system in Tamil Nadu next year and urged the State government to take up with Army Headquarters and the Ministry of Defence the issue of facilitating aspiring candidates from the State to write the examination in Tamil.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the recruitment rally at Seethakathi Sethupathi stadium here on Tuesday, Brig. Sangram Dalvi, Deputy Director General, Recruiting (States), said from next year, a new recruiting system would be followed in Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Rajasthan, where the footfall was large.
Under the new system, candidates would be made to appear for Physical Fitness Tests (PFTs) and medical test after they cleared written examination, he said.
In Rajasthan and Punjab, about one lakh youths turned up whenever the Army held a recruitment rally, and in Tamil Nadu also the response was good, he said.
The Army had also decided to hold the written examinations in at least half a dozen centres in each State. In Tamil Nadu, the written examination, held in Tiruchi, would be held in four or six centres, he said.
Referring to the fact that many candidates who cleared the PFTs and medical tests failed to join the Army as they found it difficult to clear the written test, which was conducted in Hindi and English, Brig. Dalvi suggested that the State government should take up the issue with the Army Headquarters and the MoD.
He had already briefed the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary about the difficulties faced by the candidates in clearing written examinations.
The candidates were tested for General Knowledge (40 marks), Maths and Science (30 marks each) and the question paper was prepared based on class X syllabus (CBSE), he said.
On the first day of the week-long recruitment rally here on Tuesday, 2,500 candidates were called for the PFTs, and 335 of them cleared the 1.6-km-long run to qualify for next level tests, he said.
Those who cleared the PFTs and medical would be called for written examination to be held in Tiruchi on August 28, he added.
Earlier, Collector S. Natarajan flagged off the recruitment rally at the stadium. The Army will be holding the rally till August 10 to recruit about 550 candidates for Solider (General Duty) and various other posts. Col. N. Abraham, Director, Army Recruiting Office, Tiruchi, was present.
