By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Setting out with an idea of making the youth responsible citizens, besides preparing them with basic civil defense training for future references, the State Civil Defence and Homeguard Department on Saturday awarded over 130 Mawlai youth with certificates for completing their 40-day training programme organised by the department.
Over 100 boys and 30 girls belonging to different parts of Mawlai and between the ages of 18-30 years were on Saturday awarded a certificate by the State Government for completing the voluntary basic training programme which is organised by the department every year.
The closing function of the training programme was held at Madan Heh at Mawlai Phudmuri here on Saturday which was attended by Local MLA FS Cajee as the chief guest besides officials of the Homeguard and civil defence department including joint director of civil defence RR Thangkhiew who is also the joint commandant general of the state Homeguard, commandant of the East Khasi Hills district Homeguard C Ranee, Deputy Controller of Civil Defence OT Shangpliang, members of the Nongkwar Dorbar Shnong and others.
It may be mentioned that these 130 youth were trained at Mawlai Nongkwar for a span of 40 days which started from September 9. The selection of these youth to be part of the Homeguard training programme was decided by the respective Rangbah Shnong of the different localities of Mawlai.
“The main purpose of this training programme is to prepare the youth with the basic skills in terms of security aspect besides providing a chance to get the first preference in case there is any opening for a security job in any government offices and other financial and educational institutions of the state”, commandant of the East Khasi Hills district Homeguard C Ranee told reporters on the sidelines of the function.
It was informed that for the training, the state government had sanctioned Rs 90 per day for 40 days for one volunteer and Rs 25 of washing allowances for the period of 40 days. The kind of training imparted to the volunteers included arms training, drill, discipline and basic civil defence skills.
Meanwhile, speaking as the chief guest, Local MLA FS Cajee said that this training is an encouragement to the youth of Mawlai and the state as a whole. “Becoming a source of inspiration for other youth is very important and what these 130 youth have displayed today is something very encouraging”, Cajee said.
Maintaining that the state is faced with the problem of unemployment, Cajee said imparting such trainings and skills to the youth gave an opportunity for the youth to try out something new in various fields including defence besides making them good citizens of the state.
Cajee, who is also the parliamentary secretary had assured to take the matter to the state government and to apprise the government of the work and task undertaken by the civil and Homeguard department and to avail funds to the department to further extend its services to the rural areas of the state.
Later, during the function, the audience witnessed a demonstration on basic skills to save a life in dire situation besides a band display.