Worried about the diminishing presence of Punjabis among National Defence Academy (NDA) cadets over the years,the state government has set up an Armed Forces Preparatory Institute to reverse the trend. The Institutes first session will start in April,2011. With this,Punjab becomes only the second state in the country to set up such an institute. Its been a surprising decline for this state of martial people that provided close to 120 cadets per batch to the NDA in the 60s. In the last batch that passed out of the Academy,there were only six Gentlemen Cadets from Punjab Talking to The Indian Express,Maj Gen (Retd) Baljit Singh Grewal,who is Director of the newly formed Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute in Sector 77,Mohali,said,I was the Deputy Commandant of the NDA and retired this year. The 119th batch of NDA,which passed out in June this year,had only two per cent Punjabi cadets out of 300. In the 1960s,our state was well represented out of a batch of 300,a minimum of 40 per cent were from Punjab. The cadets who have passed out in the last few years are mostly children of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and other ranks,with hardly any children of Commissioned Officers. A few years ago,the percentage from Punjab was 5 per cent. The intake of (Punjabi) youngsters in the Army below officer rank is fine,as Punjab has a two per cent quota in the Army. But in NDA and IMA,there is no such quota, he said. Grewal said corporate careers had lured Punjabi youth away from the Forces. Now the youngsters have alternative career options,which were not there during our times. They prefer the corporate world or IT industry,also the trend in our state is to go abroad and work. There is a perception that Army life is hard and it is not such a well-paying carrier. But after the Sixth Pay Commission,the salaries in the forces are very good. Also,the few who are joining the armed forces from the state are mostly from a rural background and they are physically fit but lack in English skills,soft skills and leadership qualities. They are uncut diamonds that need to be cut properly,which we plan to do in our institute, he added. Grewal said,The course in our institute will be of two years duration and the students have to pay just the tuition charges of the school for classes XI and XII. The rest of the course will be free of cost. There will be free hostel accommodation,as each student will get a room with a bathroom,free uniform and training. They will be coached in shooting,horse riding,golf,swimming,football,hockey,basketball,volleyball and squash,also gymnasium,computer and library facilities will be provided. A lot of emphasis will be laid on soft skills,personality development,verbal and written expression,as the student will be trained for the written test of NDA and Services Selection Board. At present such an institute (Services Preparatory Institute) is run by the Maharashtra government in Aurangabad. There is a shortage of 12,000 officers in the Army alone, Grewal said.
