BHUBANESWAR: At a time when Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has called upon youths to volunteer for the state’s civil defence wing, the Higher Education department has plans to increase the NCC enrolment in public colleges and universities.
The Odisha NCC Directorate currently has an approximate strength of 63,149 cadets, primarily drawn from educational institutions. According to reports, DG, NCC Lt Gen Gurbir Pal Singh during his visit to Odisha this year had revealed plans for expansion of NCC by another 12,618 cadets. Official sources said the state unit has now planned to expand it further by 20,000 cadets.
Currently, the state NCC is deficient by five per cent of the authorised enrolment and to meet the deficiency, the vice-chancellors of all public universities have been asked to assist in improving the enrolment.
Officials said the Higher Education department has proposed to form a club comprising a lawyer, an activist, a psychologist, among others, who would visit higher educational institutions in aspirational districts like Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Malkangiri, Koraput and Nabarangpur to give pep talks or motivational talks to students and encourage them to join NCC. This apart, vice-chancellors have been asked to direct colleges affiliated to them to allow NCC to conduct camps for cadets. NCC conducts 88 camps from April to December.
While, there are three NCC group headquarters at Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur, a new NCC group headquarters has come up in Koraput. It has already been decided to set up three training centres for NCC in Cuttack and Sambalpur on over 5 acre of land each and on 10 acre land in Berhampur. Under the revised syllabus for UG in alignment with the National Education Policy-2020, NCC is being offered as an elective to students.
On Sunday, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi called upon youths to join the state’s civil defence units. Currently, there are 12 civil defence units in the state and chief minister has directed for formation of more if required. Higher Education minister Suryabanshi Suraj, too, had called for the enrolment of more cadets in NCC.