The Ganjam district administration has launched registrations for a free training programme that will prepare 1,150 youths for recruitment to the Army, paramilitary forces and Odisha Police, with camps planned across all 22 blocks and the Berhampur Municipal Corporation area.
Registrations opened through a website on Monday and will remain open until the end of October, according to the Ganjam administration. The four-month training programme is scheduled to begin on November 15 under the district’s Ganjam Lakshya Niketan initiative.
Collector Keerthi Vasan V said 23 camps would be established for the programme, with one centre in each of the district’s 22 blocks and another in the Berhampur Municipal Corporation area. Each centre will accommodate 50 aspirants. If applications exceed the available capacity at a centre, candidates will be selected through an entrance examination, he said.
The programme will combine written-examination coaching with physical training. The administration is preparing grounds in each block for the physical sessions, with locations likely to be selected in block headquarters towns and at nearby schools. Written coaching classes will be conducted in nearby schools using smart classrooms.
The administration is also exploring the involvement of retired defence and police officers in the training programme. The collector said officials would discuss possible assistance with the authorities of the Army Air Defence College in Gopalpur, although no formal arrangement with the college was announced in the supplied report.
The initiative is intended to increase the number of youths from Ganjam recruited into defence and other uniformed services, the collector said. By placing centres across the district rather than limiting the programme to major towns, the administration is making both academic coaching and physical preparation available closer to applicants’ homes.
Sub-collector, Berhampur, Avinash Kumar said separate physical training would be arranged for women aspirants if their number reached at least half of the total candidates at a camp. The administration will provide coaching and physical training free of cost, but candidates will have to meet their own food and boarding expenses.
Ganjam Lakshya Niketan was established by the district administration two years ago to provide free coaching for Union Public Service Commission and Odisha Public Service Commission examinations. Its three existing centres operate in the sub-divisional headquarters of Berhampur, Chhatrapur and Bhanjanagar.
The immediate milestones for the new programme are the completion of registrations by the end of October, selection of candidates where applications exceed capacity, preparation of training grounds and the start of the four-month sessions on November 15.
