To realise their childhood dream of donning ‘khaki’ uniform and serve the mother Nation, large number of ‘enthusiastic’ young girls from remote areas of Jammu region are queuing up outside Police headquarters for last couple of days, braving adverse weather conditions, to participate in the special recruitment drive aimed at raising two women battalions.
So far aspirants from hilly districts of Doda, Ramban,Kishtwar and twin border districts of Rajouri, Poonch have attended the first leg of the special recruitment drive, currently underway at Gulshan ground.
Since early morning, aspirants start converging along with their parents and family friends to attend the rally. Since they are travelling from far off places they prefer reaching venue at the earliest to avoid any last minute hiccups. The atmosphere inside the Gulshan ground was electrifying when group of media persons reached the venue of the special drive.
In the first leg, the candidates were undergoing physical endurance/standard test. After clearing the first hurdle, jubilant candidates were allowed to interact with media persons for a short span of time. The candidates, greeted them with patriotic chants and loud cheers. “We are feeling proud, we are participating in the recruitment drive despite facing many hardships”. Several candidates, names not being disclosed, claimed they wanted to serve the mother Nation by joining the police force. “I am very optimistic, after clearing the first round without facing any major hurdle i am set to participate in the second round”, a NCC cadet from Bhallessa in Doda district said.
Another candidate from Ramban claimed, “i want to help my family. “We have seen many ups and downs during our childhood days, now i want to help my parents as they had struggled alot while raising my siblings and ensuring better education facilities for us”.
Senior police officers, supervising the recruitment drive told reporters in Jammu, “the morale of the aspiring candidates is very high and they are all keen to serve the police force”.
Briefing media persons, Inspector General of Police (Armed) Danesh Rana said, “the current recruitment drive is aimed at raising two women battalions, one each for Jammu and Kashmir divisions”.
He said, the candidates are being screened in a very professional manner. We have allocated district wise quota for aspiring candidates. Rana said, “we are following a very transparent process. There is no scope of any human intervention during the recruitment drive and only meritorious candidates are expected to make it to the final list”.
Union government had earlier announced two women battalions in June 2018 to enhance the representation of women in the Police force. The final sanction was given by the State Administrative Council (SAC) under the chairmanship of former Governor Satya Pal Malik in January 2019.