The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : NCC to raise strength of girl cadets

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 28, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

NCC to raise strength of girl cadets

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV. 27. The Directorate of NCC, Kerala and Lakshadweep, proposes to raise the strength of girl cadets from the existing 25 per cent to 33 per cent in the next academic year.

Announcing this at a press conference today in connection with the NCC Day celebrations to be held on November 28, Brigadier N.P.R. Pillai, Deputy Director General, NCC (Kerala and Lakshadweep), said that the organisation, at present, has 74,000 boys and girls enrolled in it. They have been organised into five Groups and 39 Battalions covering 489 schools and 226 colleges in the State.

Government support

The State Government had been extending excellent support to the NCC activities. However, there was the need to create more awareness among the youth in Kerala on the immense potential of the NCC and the benefits, tangible and intangible, it could provide to them. The issues of job reservation for NCC cadets and provision of uniform grace marks for them at the university-level had been taken up with the Government, Mr. Pillai said.

He said that the NCC offered many incentives to cadets in terms of marks and reservation for professional courses. The Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, offered 64 vacancies every year. Similarly, the Officers' Training Academy, Chennai, gave 100 vacancies for NCC cadets, The Indian Navy offered six vacancies per course and 10 per cent of seats were reserved for them for all courses of the Indian Air Force.

Scholarships

Also, several scholarships were available to the NCC cadets. Under a scheme launched by the Sahara Group of Companies, scholarships ranging from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 30,000 were being provided to outstanding cadets. Besides, the State Government was distributing Rs. 4.5 lakhs every year as scholarships to the deserving cadets, he said.

Mr. Pillai said the NCC laid emphasis on institutional training and camp-oriented as well as adventure activities. On an average, 55 annual training camps were conducted and around 30,000 cadets attended these camps. This year too, the Kerala NCC would conduct two national integration camps, in Thrissur and Kannur.

The community development programmes and social service activities of the NCC included tree planting, blood donation camps, vigilance awareness, campaign on AIDS and cancer awareness, adoption of HIV-infected children and water harvesting.

NCC Day fete

The NCC Day celebrations, coinciding with the 56th anniversary of the formation of the corps, would be inaugurated by the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, at the Tagore Centenary hall tomorrow evening, Mr. Pillai said. A cultural programme would also be staged by NCC cadets.

A "Run for Peace" would be flagged off at 6.30 a.m. from the Air Port Hanger at Shanghumukhom to the Martyrs' Column at Palayam, said Col. V.R.R. Pillai, Commander, NCC, Thiruvananthapuram Group.

Col. Vivek Ananthakrishnan, Director, NCC, Kerala, who was also present at the press conference, said that the last lap of the six-day inter-State cycle rally from Muvattupuzha to Kanyakumari would be flagged off from the city at 10 a.m. tomorrow. The rally in which 90 cadets of the NCC would take part would start from Kanyakumari on November 29 and conclude at Muvattupuzha on December 1, he said.

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