Mysore/Mysuru: ‘Agnipath’ scheme — a radical recruitment policy for the armed forces under which ‘Agniveers’ are hired on four-year contract for the three defence services — will help in character building and will empower the nation’s youth with military prowess, said Dr. Krishna Rau, paediatric haematologist and oncologist from Armed Forces Medical College, Pune.

He was speaking at a session on ‘Adventures in storytelling.’ Under the ‘Agnipath’ scheme, Indian youth will be provided an opportunity to serve in the armed forces as ‘Agniveer’. This scheme has been brought to strengthen the security of the country. It is a transformative scheme, he added. Writer R. Chandrasekhar, and career counsellor Shankar Bellur were part of the panel discussion.

“It is a unique opportunity for youth to serve the country and contribute to nation-building. Moreover, profile of armed forces is youthful and dynamic. There will be opportunity for Agniveers to train in the best institutions and enhance their skills and qualifications. Apart from all the statutory benefits, there is the ready availability of well-disciplined and skilled youth with military ethos in civil society,” he explained.

‘Participate in the governance process’

“We think that questioning the Government is our fundamental right. But just opposing a Government decision is not activeness. We must participate in the problem-solving process along with the Government. This is what is needed in our present times. We just criticise and keep quiet,” said Capacity Building Commission (CBC) Human Resource Member Dr. R. Balasubramaniam.

Speaking at a session on ‘Embedding state capacity with community wisdom,’ he said that only constructive criticism and involvement in the development process can solve some of the problems plaguing India. “Participation in governing process becomes our responsibility and there must be constant learning. Just criticising is not enough. Unfortunately, present ecosystem only has people who criticise for the sake of criticism. There will be no constructive development if we continue this attitude,” he opined.

Mentioning about Centralised Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), an online platform available to the citizens 24×7 to lodge their grievances to the public authorities on any subject related to service delivery, he said that this a unique system for public grievances solving mechanism.

It is a single portal connected to all the Ministries and Departments of the Government of India and States. Every Ministry and States have role-based access to this system, he explained.