Ganjam district administration has opened registrations for a free coaching and physical training programme for 1,150 youths preparing for recruitment to the Agniveer scheme, paramilitary forces and Odisha police, with training scheduled to begin on November 15.
The initiative, called Ganjam Lakshya Niketan, will operate through 23 camps—one in each of the district’s 22 blocks and one in the Berhampur Municipal Corporation area. Each camp will train up to 50 aspirants for four months, according to Ganjam collector Keerthi Vasan V.
Registrations opened on Monday and will remain available until the end of October through a website launched by the administration. If applications exceed 50 at any centre, candidates will be selected through an entrance examination, the collector said.
The programme will combine written-examination coaching with physical training. The administration is exploring the involvement of retired defence and police officers as trainers and will also discuss possible support from the Army Air Defence College in Gopalpur, Vasan said.
Physical training grounds are being identified and prepared in each block. The preferred locations are block headquarters towns and nearby schools. Written-examination classes will be organised at nearby schools using smart classrooms, according to the administration.
The district administration has also outlined a separate arrangement for women aspirants. Berhampur sub-collector Avinash Kumar said separate physical training would be provided if women account for at least half of the candidates at a camp.
The programme will provide coaching and physical training without charge, but candidates will have to meet their own food and boarding expenses, Kumar said. The administration has not announced any arrangement for accommodation or meals during the four-month training period.
The stated objective is to increase the number of youths from Ganjam entering defence and other uniformed services. The initiative extends the work of Ganjam Lakshya Niketan, which was established two years ago to provide free coaching for Union Public Service Commission and Odisha Public Service Commission examinations.
The earlier programme currently operates three centres in the sub-divisional headquarters of Berhampur, Chhatrapur and Bhanjanagar. The new recruitment-focused camps will take the administration’s coaching model to block-level locations, placing both written preparation and physical training closer to applicants across the district.
The next official milestones are the completion of registrations by the end of October, selection through entrance examinations where required, and the start of the four-month training cycle on November 15.
