Fresh NCC enrolment halted as West Bengal govt fails to release funds: Official

The National Cadet Corps (NCC) has decided to stop enrolling new candidates in West Bengal for the fiscal year 2022-23 as the state has allegedly paid less than what is required as budgetary support, according to an official.

Over 41,000 cadets who have already enrolled in the NCC, a youth development movement managed by the armed forces open to all regular students of schools and colleges, will be unable to participate in annual camps, the official said. "State governments fund 25 per cent of the camps, while the Centre funds 75 per cent," another NCC official explained.

In a letter to the Director General of the NCC, Major General U S Sengupta, the NCC's additional director general in charge of West Bengal and Sikkim directorate, said that despite the state government's "relentless efforts and correspondence at various levels," the budget allocation to West Bengal NCC has remained unchanged.

"Cadet enrollment in this training year has been halted until additional funds projected by this directorate to the state government are made available," Major General Sengupta said on October 6.

Major Dr B B Singh, the spokesperson for the NCC's West Bengal and Sikkim directorate, said on Wednesday that the Bengal government had allocated Rs 80 lakh for 2022-23, with an additional Rs 3 crore required.

Singh said that the total requirement is Rs 10 crore, which includes the infrastructure development of an academy in Kalyani, Nadia district. According to the spokesperson, cadets' careers would suffer if they could not complete their training and examinations.

The NCC also exposes cadets to various activities, focusing on social services, discipline, and adventure training.

According to Maj Gen Sengupta's letter, the total number of West Bengal cadets scheduled to attend CATCs (combined annual training camps) in the current fiscal year is 54,324 in the current fiscal year.

While 6,586 cadets have already completed CATCs, the remaining budgetary outlay allows for another 6,400 to do so.

"The total number of WB cadets who will be left without a camp and thus ineligible for B and C certificate examinations (is) 41,068," according to the letter.

It stated that another 103 camps would be needed to accommodate them and that 75 per cent of the enrolled candidates would be unable to attend camps and thus would be ineligible to attend NCC B and C certificate camps.

Noting that the directorate cannot train even the already enrolled cadets, the letter stated that cadet enrollment for the fiscal year 2022-23 would be halted until an additional fund is made available.

According to Singh, a cadet must attend one camp for the B and at least two for the C certificates.

(With inputs from PTI)

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