Besides dealing insurgency, Army working toward empowerment of people, particularly youth
Ess Ahmad
Srinagar, Aug 27: Indian Army deployed at the Line of Actual Control, Line of Control and fighting terrorism sponsored by our Western adversary, has also been working towards empowerment of the people in general and youth in particular through a wide variety of Sadbhavana projects covering infrastructural development, education including higher education, skill development, employment generation, sports, talent promotion and so on. In 2021, Udhampur based Northern Command launched “Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh Special Scholarship Scheme” sponsoring higher education in Universities and colleges outside the two Union Territories.
Thousands of youth registered for it. Through a meticulous screening test, 311 students were selected for courses such as B Tech in various streams, B. Pharma, B. Radiology, and so on. Due to COVID, the admissions could only be organised in Mewar University, Rajasthan.
The scheme was so popular that hundreds of Panches, Sarpanches, District Development Council members launched a signature campaign requesting the Army to expand the scope and vacancies. Seeing the demand re- launched the scheme declaring approximately additional quota of 500 vacancies to be filled by students from the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
An awareness campaign was launched by the units wherein the troops on ground shared details of the scheme with youth. An online campaign was also launched and web based online registrations were carried out. Over 5000 candidates applied for the scheme from Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions. It is encouraging to see large participation from girls. An online test was held from 29th July to 01 August for screening youth. Over 800 youth cleared the exam and currently their verification and screening of documents in in progress. Very soon , a warm send off will be organised for the selected candidates.
This year, out of over 5000 youth who applied for the scheme, over 3000 are from Kashmir, 1400 from Jammu and 100 from Ladakh regions.
The awareness, mobilisation, registration and selection processes adopted for implementation of the scheme were scientific, automated and handled by professional organisations, thus making the entire initiative very competitive.
The scholarship will be given only to those who are below poverty line and form part of the merit list. Each student will be required to make a one time payment of Rs 30000/- only which includes refundable security deposit and admission fee. Remaining cost of academics, lodging and catering will be either borne by Army or the institutions themselves.
