Focus on border areas, NCC plans to raise cadet strength by 8 lakh

The plan, they said, is to expand NCC’s reach to a greater number of educational institutions with a focus on far-flung border areas to bring in more youth into its fold and groom them in social service and inculcate in them discipline and values of nationalism.

A government official privy to the development said there has been a long waiting list for schools and colleges who wanted to get students enrolled in NCC, but it could not be done so far due to lack of resources and instructors. “The expansion will ensure the waiting list gets reduced and students from more institutions can be part of NCC,” the official said.

According to this official, the expansion is likely to be carried out by the optimisation of each NCC battalion so that its impact is maximised in its area of jurisdiction, without having to go beyond seven to eight companies in a battalion. The expansion plans, he said, will cover NCC units of the Army and not naval and air wing units, as they have a requirement of specialised equipment.

An NCC group can include four to eight battalions and can cover three to 15 districts. There are 17 NCC directorates across the country, with three to six groups under each directorate.

A second official said each directorate will hold discussions with state governments to assess the vacancies needed in each state, essential to base the expansion plans on.

The official said in view of overall rightsizing plans of the Army, the number of permanent instructors to NCC from the Army can go down by about 40 per cent and options to replace them with veterans on contract basis and re-employed officers is being discussed.

Getting more associate NCC officers who can train the cadets in non-core military subjects is also being considered, as is a proposal of opening NCC appointments to paramilitary forces, it is learnt.

The training structure of the cadets will be given a fresh look on the background of the expansion plans and the availability of permanent instructors from the armed forces, sources said.

Other options being considered under the expansion plans are merging of some units, relocating some units to cover existing gaps, and upgrading directorates which oversee too many states together.

According to sources, all NCC directorates have been asked to coordinate with the states and get the approval in place for the expansion.