On July 6, 2023, the Indian Navy Chief, Admiral Hari Kumar, as a part of the Indian Navy outreach programme at Leh, said that only seven people from Ladakh are in the ranks of the Indian Navy at present, but it wants nearly seven hundreds of them to join the forces.
The Indian Navy has started an outreach programme in Ladakh to get recruits from this area. The Navy Chief reached there after a fourteen-hour road drive.
“The aim of the Navy is to ensure that at least one sailor each from all the villages and districts of the country,” the Navy Chief said.
In an interview, the Naval Chief said, “In line with PM Narendra Modi’s vision, the Navy wants that in the near future, it should have one soldier from every part of the country and after that from every village of the country.”
“The Outreach mission is primarily because, with the Agniveer Scheme that we have started, the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi states that we should have one Agniveer from every village,” he said.
After a detailed study, the Navy Chief asserted that the northeastern region of India is the only region from which the volunteers and participants are minuscule, and only a handful are in the Indian Navy.
“When we conducted a study, we found that currently, we have representation from 656 districts out of all the districts of India, which is 85 per cent. We are trying to make it one hundred per cent in the coming years,” he added.
“In the month of December 2022, we went to Nagaland. We are planning to go to Manipur and the other northeastern states subsequently. Also, we have sent an expedition of women. The Car Rally was held in Rajasthan, the western part of the country. We did a coastal car rally starting from Kolkata to Lakhpat in Gujarat, which was done in the month of April 2023,” he added.
“I have come here to spread the message of outreach from the Indian Navy. We have a total of seven people: one officer and six sailors. That is all out of the force of 70,000 personnel which I feel is very less,” he said. Also, the Indian Navy Chief said – “It is my endeavour that more and more people from this region join the Indian Navy.”
“So, the Navy has come up with a team which is deployed in Ladakh for a period of thirty days They are doing various programmes, visiting schools and colleges to bring awareness to the Navy. Till now, the team has visited nine schools and two colleges. I would say that the need is for more and more youth to join the Indian Armed Forces-Army, Navy, Air Force, it does not matter,” he said.
The Indian Navy is conducting and organising a lot of other contact programmes like football matches and interaction with schools and students, Admiral Hari Kumar informed.
The Navy chief further informed, “I am speaking to the NCC Cadets and so on.” He further said that we have to look at the three forces as a joint asset of the nation. All the assets must be used jointly so that there is a maximum operational benefit for the country.
“Being a naval chief, I wanted to make sure that an adequate number of people and representatives are coming from this region. So, the miracles of seven should become 700 in the near future,” he said. He also paid tribute to the soldiers of the Indian Army and Indian Air Force at the War Memorial.
“It is a solemn occasion to come and pay homage to this sacred ornament. We as a nation must always remember the fallen heroes. Those who gave their lives, those who gave up their today for our tomorrow, must be honoured, and I cannot think of a better occasion to pay homage to them,” he added.
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