Police train hill youths for competitive examinations for recruitment into army and police

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Jul 26, 2018, Darjeeling: Police have started a pre-enrolment training course for over 100 students from the most troubled areas of the hills during last year's agitation to prepare them for recruitment examinations of army, and paramilitary and police forces.

The initiative which is part of the Darjeeling police's community development programme, is aimed at improving police-public relation.

Interestingly, the centre for the course has been set up at Kanchenjunga Public School in Tukvar, which was considered a pet project of absconding Gorkha leader Bimal Gurung. The CBSE school, which has classes from 1 to X, is run by a trust that had Gurung's son and daughter as members.

Akhilesh Chaturvedi, the superintendent of police, Darjeeling, said: "There was lot of disturbance here last year. Earlier, we had conducted a football tournament involving four constituencies and now we will run a centre to train the students for competitive examinations for recruitment into army and police."

The four areas are Tukvar, Lebong-Badamtam, Pandam-Phoobshering and Goke-Karmatar. The places were most disturbed during last year's agitation. The soccer competition, which carried one of the highest prize money for a sporting event in Darjeeling, was incidentally named Kanchenjunga Football Tournament and the finals of the tourney at Tukvar, Gurung's native place.

The 100-day course at the Kanchenjunga Public School has drawn a good response with 106 students enrolling. "There are 66 boys and 40 girls who have enrolled for the course," said Chaturvedi.

The course has been divided into two categories and includes physical training and preparations for written examinations. "We have started this initiative as lot of youths from the hills join the army and we want to ensure that they are prepared for such examinations," said Chaturvedi.

The course will be conducted for a couple of hours every day from 6.30am. This is largely because the students, too, have to attend their respective schools. "The courses are being conducted free of cost," said Siddharth Dorji, deputy superintendent of police, Darjeeling (town).

The police have taken up a number of community initiatives which include football and talent hunt contests and distribution of relief materials in closed tea gardens. The finals of Rising Stars, a talent hunt contest, will be held on Saturday and Sunday.
(Source & Courtesy: The Telegraph)