Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s budget has ushered in some new hope to the armed forces recruitment officers in the State.
The finance minister’s announcement to allocate Rs 44 crore to the 22 Sainik schools in the country (Rs 2 crore for each school), for the financial year 2008-09, has received a thumbs up from the recruitment officers and the administrators of the State’s two Sainik schools in Bijapur and Kodagu.
The alarming decline of officers from the State to the armed forces has been attributed to factors like: youngsters opting for high paying corporate jobs, lack of awareness among public about opportunities in armed forces, etc.
Also, another main reason was lack of support from government for maintaining and strengthening the infrastructure in Sainik schools.
This was also echoed by Union Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju, who is also the chairman of the Board of Governors of Sainik Schools Society.
Acute shortage
During a recent visit to the City, Mr Raju had said the acute shortage of about 12,000 officers across the three services in the armed forces was due to lack of adequate support from the governments, especially when it came to maintenance and strengthening of infrastructure in these schools.
25 per cent intake
Sainik schools have provided 25 per cent of the intake into the National Defence Academy (NDA) and is considered to be the finishing school for the men joining the NDA.
With the announcement of Rs 2 crore to the two Sainik schools, principals of these schools told Deccan Herald that it will definitely help increase the representation in the officer cadre from Karnataka.
“For the first time in the history of Sainik schools, the Government has taken a step which will lift the morale of these schools. Keeping in view the 6th Pay Commission, the budgetary allocation will play a major role in attracting youngsters," said Col Prakash Narahari, principal, Sainik School, Kodagu.
Capt (IN) Jatinderkumar, principal, Sainik school, Bijapur said, “We would like to improve the training module in the school with the help of the funds, so that our students do well in the Service Selection Board (SSB). It will also help to acquire more books and equipments at the laboratories,” he added.
