The 77,000-strong National Cadet Corps (NCC) in the state is set for a make-over rank-wise and in terms of activities.
Brigadier-rank officers will soon take over as heads of NCC groups in the state and the State Government has given the go-ahead for raising a new group in Kannur.
The State Government’s nod for raising the new group - which will be the sixth one in the state - was received on Monday, Major General B Chakravarty, Additional Director General, Kerala and Lakshadweep NCC, told ‘Express.’
A new mixed unit and a new naval unit will be raised as part of forming the new Kannur Group. Two companies - an independent girls’ company and an artillery company - will be raised to full-scale battalions and another battalion, now under the Kozhikode group, will be transferred to the newly-formed group, Chakravarty said.
The Kannur group will be approximately 13,000 strong.
Brigadier-rank officers are slated to take over as commanding officers of all six groups soon with the NCC upgrading the Kerala and Lakshadweep deputy directorate to an additional directorate.
Since March, an officer of the rank of major general has been heading the directorate instead of a brigadier, and brigadiers will soon replace colonel-rank officers as head of the NCC groups in Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Kollam and Kozhikode and the proposed one in Kannur.
‘’They will take over soon as the new posts have already been sanctioned,’’ Chakravarty, who is also the senior-most army officer posted in the state, said.
NCC units have been upgraded in those states where the NCC is expecting expansion, he said.
