‘Army village’ veterans want govt to ensure job security

VELLORE: Both servicemen and veterans in villages around Vellore who have sent their sons to the army earlier want the Centre to rethink the scheme to ensure that when Agniveers come out after 4 years of service they are able to get decent jobs, sources said.

Almost all the 957 families living in Kammavanpettai on the Vellore – Tiruvannamalai Highway in Kaniyambadi Panchayat Union in Vellore district have either sent one or even two sons to serve in the army and hence the village is known as the “army village” locally.

G Elumalai, PMK panchayat union councilor and a resident of the village said, “all of us welcome the scheme as in these days of unemployment it will provide work for many youth in the 17 to 23 years age group. But, what happens when they “retire” after 4 years of service? As they will he highly trained, such hard learnt skills will go waste or they can be pulled in by various terrorist groups who will be saved the job of training them afresh.”

Jayakumar another resident said, “the Centre has to ensure that after they retire they are taken in by para military forces like CRPF, CISF and BSF as otherwise such trained youth in their prime will become discouraged when left to fend for themselves.”

Veerankuppam near Ambur is another village where servicemen are highly respected as they had provided various amenities for the area with their own funds in addition to providing relief during the pandemic related lockdown. Sundararajan a resident said, “The scheme will be accepted if the government will promise that those who ‘retire’ are given priority in employment by the respective state governments. Failure to do this can even lead to suicide for such youth who find themselves jobless and thus not accepted by society.”