Parliamentary panel points to 'low' selection of male NCC cadets in armed forces, refers to 'training deficiencies'

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has said that there has been a low selection rate of male NCC 'C' certificate cadets in the Indian armed forces.

The report of the panel on demands for grants of the Defence Ministry for 2022-23 was presented in parliament on Wednesday.

It has suggested that the Ministry should revamp training methods and also devise new methods to ensure that NCC cadets are trained in a professional way for their selection through Staff Selection Board.

During the meetings of the panel, data provided by the Ministry of Defence revealed that the selection of male NCC Cadets from 2017 to 2021 was 314 as against the available vacancies of 500.

The committee was further informed that the selection rate of NCC 'C' certificate holders in the Army is also quite low as more than 40 per cent of vacancies remained vacant.

During the same period, the performance of 'C' certificate holder in the Naval wing was also not up to the mark as out of 12 vacancies only two cadets were selected as officers in the Navy, the report said.

The Committee noted that the selection rate of NCC 'C' Certificate holders especially male cadets in the armed forces is low largely due to training deficiencies.

The committee was given to understand that in order to resolve the issues with regard to the shortfall in trainers, a high-level committee has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Baijayant Panda.

"Considering the role of NCC in nation-building, the Committee recommends that issues relating to trainers are resolved at the earliest and matters relating to the expansion of administrative structure at college and institutional level is undertaken for consideration expeditiously," the report said.

"The Ministry may also consider the feasibility of induction of trainers from ESM and civilian field to overcome the shortage of trainers from the services," it added.

The panel noted that on the one hand the services were facing a shortage of officers, and, on the other, "NCC is not able to train their cadets to become officers in the Army, Navy and Air Force".

"Therefore, the Committee recommends that the Ministry should revamp their training methods and also devise new methods so as to ensure that NCC cadets are trained in a professional way in order to enable them to get selected for Staff Selection Board (SSB)," the report said.

The parliamentary committee on Defence is chaired by BJP MP Jual Oram and its members include former Defence Minister Sharad Pawar and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

( With inputs from ANI )