However, since the implementation of the two-level local government model, military recruitment in the area has encountered many difficulties, requiring synchronous and drastic solutions to resolve them. Faced with this situation, the Military Command of Ha Tinh province has proactively advised the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee to issue many plans and directives to promptly resolve the "bottlenecks" in the implementation of military and defense tasks in general and military recruitment in particular.

Issues arising from practice

At nearly 11pm on Saturday, the lights at the headquarters of the Huong Son Commune Military Command were still on. That was the workplace of Comrade Nguyen Anh Duc, Commander of the Commune Military Command. People around the area shared that, since the headquarters moved here, almost every night the officers of the Commune Military Command worked until late. On Monday morning, we arrived at 7am, thinking it was still early, but the officers of the Commune Military Command were all present and were handling the procedures for transferring the veterans' residence.

Comrade Duc said: “Since the merger of 4 communes and Pho Chau town into Huong Son commune, the area has become too large, while the number of military command staff is still only 3 people. The workload has increased many times, the new staff are not familiar with the area, forcing us to work at night but still cannot keep up.”

Meeting with families of citizens of military age in Tran Phu ward, Ha Tinh province.

The same situation also occurred in many new communes and wards after the merger. In Tran Phu ward, comrade Le Thi Phuong Chi, Vice Chairman of the ward People's Committee, said: "The current ward is the result of the merger of 4 administrative units, including wards: Dong Mon, Thach Trung, Thach Ha and Ho Do commune, with a population of more than 38,000 people. Of which, more than 39% are Catholics. This is a big challenge in propaganda and mobilization work for military service."

According to Ms. Chi, the young people of military age are mainly working far away, many are working abroad or studying outside the province, causing difficulties in management and basic investigation. The Ward Military Command has only a few people, including comrades who are studying. On the other hand, the conversion of the management model to a two-level local government has caused a number of regulations and authorities related to military recruitment to change, leading to inconsistent processes and procedures.

Another difficulty is that at the commune level, the new cadres do not have much experience in directing and implementing military recruitment. Although attention has been paid to propaganda work on military service, in some places it is still not thorough and lacks a systematic approach, leading to a situation where people do not fully understand the new regulations.

Meanwhile, the Regional Defense Command (PTKV) force, which has the capacity and experience, lacks a clear mechanism to coordinate with communes and wards. Some areas proactively support the base, but most are still waiting for instructions, leading to a waste of resources. This is one of the bottlenecks that the province is trying to remove.

Proactive and determined from grassroots to provincial level

Clearly identifying military recruitment as a key political task, closely linked to the responsibility of leaders, localities in Ha Tinh have proactively issued specialized resolutions and developed detailed plans right from the beginning of the year.

In Huong Son commune, Mr. Nguyen Tien Thich, Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: "After the Commune Party Committee issued a resolution to lead the military recruitment work, the Commune People's Committee has implemented a specific plan. We assigned the Military Command to coordinate with the Commune Police to carefully screen young people of military age; at the same time, direct mass organizations to strengthen propaganda and mobilization in each residential area."

In addition, the commune also established working groups, assigning comrades in the Standing Committee and Executive Committee to be in charge of each village to grasp the situation. The review of recruitment sources, classification of qualified youth, postponement or exemption from military service is transparent and public, ensuring compliance with regulations.

At the PTKV1-Nam Hong Linh Command, Major Nguyen Phi Vu, Deputy Commander, Chief of Staff of the PTKV1-Nam Hong Linh Command, said: “We proactively coordinated with 27 communes and wards in the area, each of which had officers directly go down to support. In addition, the unit has established 4 mobile working groups to be ready to support localities in difficulty.”

At the provincial level, the Ha Tinh Provincial Military Command has quickly deployed practical solutions to overcome the shortage of human resources and procedural chaos at the grassroots level. Colonel Hoang Anh Tu, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Provincial Military Command, said: “We have authorized the PTKV Command Boards to carry out a number of tasks in military recruitment, and at the same time included the commander of the PTKV Command Board in the composition of the Provincial Military Service Council so that they have an official role and voice in actual implementation.”

The Provincial Military Command has also promptly issued detailed guidance documents for each month, from the screening, preliminary selection, medical examination to approval and publicization of the list. Many training courses have been organized for commune officials, including the Chairman of the People's Committee, Secretary, and Commander of the Military Command on matters related to military and defense work, with special attention paid to military recruitment. The results of military recruitment work during the year are considered as criteria for emulation and reward evaluation.

In particular, the province has proactively directed the districts to compile and hand over all military recruitment sources to the Provincial Military Command before dissolution. When switching to a two-level local government model, new communes and wards were also trained from the beginning of the year to grasp the process, implement synchronously, and avoid being passive.

Currently, the propaganda work on military service has been promoted on all local media systems. Communes and wards are conducting thorough screening from village to commune level to prepare for preliminary selection and classification of military numbers. Cases with special circumstances, working far away, studying or eligible for temporary deferment or exemption from call are all made public to the people.

With the continuous efforts of Party committees, authorities, military agencies at all levels and the consensus of the people, Ha Tinh is gradually removing difficulties arising in military recruitment when implementing the two-level local government model. The province aims to complete and exceed the target of selecting and calling citizens to join the army in 2026, contributing to building a strong armed force, meeting the requirements of the task of protecting the Fatherland in the new situation.

Article and photos: LE ANH TAN

    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/quoc-phong-an-ninh/xay-dung-quan-doi/ha-tinh-thao-go-kho-khan-trong-cong-tac-tuyen-quan-847941