Selection Centre North Goes Live 4 Months Before Target Date

Kapurthala /Jalandhar, April 1, 2016: Indian Army has set up the Selection Centre North at Kapurthala with a view to select officers for the Armed Forces. Kapurthala is the fourth Selection Centre to be raised for this purpose. It consists of two Services Selection Boards (31SSB and 32 SSB). Over the years, North India and especially Punjab has been a major area of recruitment for the Indian Army. Now, to catch more young guns, the Indian Army’s Service Selection Board (SSB) has set up a centre in Kapurthala. The first batch of 80 aspirants has commenced today at the centre. The centre will cater to the job aspirants of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and even Jammu and Kashmir. These northern states, according to last year’s figure, constitute over 24 per cent of the total cadets who became officers.

Inaugurating the centre today Lt Gen KJ Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command said that it was a long pending demand of Punjab to open a selection centre in the state because the aspirants from the northern states had to visit Bhopal, Allahabad and Bengaluru to appear before the Service Selection Board (SSB). The inauguration ceremony was attended by various Military and civil dignitaries to include Lt Gen JS Cheema, General Officer Commanding, Vajra Corps, District Collector, Kapurthala, Rajya Sainik Board and various members from media houses.

It may be recalled that the raising of the Selection Centre commenced in July last year with an initial target date of operationalisation as 01 Sep 16. However the team of Officers led by Maj Gen Narinder Pal Singh relentlessly worked towards reducing the time for operationalisation and their efforts cut down the time by clear 120 days. Lt Gen KJ Singh complimented the team for its commitment and dedication to duty, and further said that the early operationalisation would ensure the Centre taking on an additional load of 25 batches and would eventually play a role in reducing the deficiency in the Officers’ cadre of the Armed forces.