Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 2: The National Cadet Corps (NCC) is going to raise Air and Naval units of the Forces in Jammu and Kashmir to strengthen its presence in the State.
Talking to newspersons here today, Director General of National Cadet Corps, Lt Gen P S Bhalla, who is here in the State on two-day visit after taking over as NCC chief said, “we are looking forward to raise a Naval unit in Jammu and an Air unit in Kashmir valley shortly.”
“A company of boys has been raised with 1,400 cadets at Leh as part of NCC’s plan of increasing cadet intake in the region, specially from the rural and border areas of J&K,” he said.
“Raising of NCC units in J&K will provide the youth here with an opportunity to join the armed forces,” the DG said.
The Directorate of NCC currently has a strength of 23,880 cadets across the three regions of the State. There are total 17 Directorates in the country and its has been observed for the last few years that intake in the Army amongst the NCC cadets or otherwise, is highest from the northern region of the country.
Emphasizing the need for changes in its curriculum to keep pace with changing aspirations of the youth, Bhalla said, NCC’s approach in that regard is being reviewed.
“The training philosophy for cadets has been refined and focus is to facilitate soft skills and personality development,” Bhalla said.
All CBSE schools in the country have added NCC as an elective subject to promote one of the country’s oldest youth organisations.
“University Grants Commission has also selected 30 autonomous universities in the country where NCC has been chosen as an elective subject,” he added.
“Our objective is to build the character of cadets and motivate them to join Army. The objective is not to train them for war. The objectives of 1962-65 have changed now,” he said.
When asked whether there is a lack of motivation among cadets about joining the Army, Bhalla insisted it is not so.
“Motivation is not a problem…Service Selection Board standards have not been diluted. Our standards remain the same. They are time-tested,” he said.
The National Defence Academy is looking to raise its existing capacity of 1,900 cadets to 2,200 before gradually ramping up that number to 2,400, the DG said.
Replying to another question, the DG said nearly 6000 to 7000 youth are joining Army, Navy and Air Force every year. He dismissed the opinion that young generation is showing lesser interest in joining armed forces these days. The DG further claimed that shortage of officers in Army is not due to joining of less number of youth but due to non-availability of right kind of stuff for the task as the Army has maintained those standards and never lowered the same at all.
Gen Bhalla said the Model Institute of Education and Research in Jammu and the Srinagar-based Islamia College have been selected to offer NCC as an elective subject from this academic session. It will follow in other institutions as well.
To promote the spirit of adventure among youth, NCC has launched an expedition of nine cadets to Mt Everest who are to reach the summit in the third week of May, he said, adding a special integration camp will be organised in Leh in August where cadets from all over the country shall participate and learn about cultural heritage of Ladakh region.
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