Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

NCC cadets honing skills at camp

— Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

IN ACTION: NCC cadets doing march past at their camp on the premises of Reddy College in Guntur on Friday.

GUNTUR: The leafy and serene surroundings at the Reddy College have been witnessing hectic activity for about ten days. Tents have perched up on the vast open spaces and groups of boys and girls in their NCC uniforms take orders from their officers and do accordingly in a clock like precision. Their body and minds in unison, they seem not to do a thing wrong. As the curtains on the 10-day NCC camp of the 25th Andhra Battalion rings down in a couple of days, the 700-odd boys and girls have come out in flying colours.

“I have learnt to be more self-disciplined and have shed inhibitions of meeting new people,” said Malathi, a student of Prathiba Degree College at Ongole.

If the daily regimen has taught them core values of discipline, obedience and commitment, living together has taught them the values of team work and honed their leadership skills. The camp concludes on Sunday and the cadets would perform at the NCC Day celebrations to be held on the Police Parade Grounds here on Saturday.

“Co-habitating in difficult conditions will make the boys and girls more self-confident and improve their physical and mental strength,” said Commanding Officer D. Sudhakara Rao.

A typical day in a camp starts early with the cadets doing PT exercises, followed by running and other fitness training. After breakfast, the cadets go thorough the motions of drill, basic training in use of fire arms, obstacle clearing etc.

They also learn compass tracking.

“Such camps aim at moulding the cadets into responsible citizens and instil qualities of selflessness and fairness.

Parents stopping children from attending such camps should realize that the time spent here would teach valuable life skills,” Mr. Rao said.

But financial constraints seemed to have a telling effect on the camp as the cadets had great difficulty in procuring uniform.

For the second successive year, the NCC department had not dispatched uniform. The supervising officers find it difficult to manage with the limited ration provided to the cadets.

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