The Karnataka Government will fund the creation of 75 units of National Cadet Corps (NCC) in educational institutions across the State to commemorate 75 years of Independence, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Sunday as he relaunched the Government Flying Training School at Jakkur here.
“The additional units will enable induction of additional 7,500 cadets to NCC in the State. The State Government will spend ₹12,000 per cadet annually in the new units. This comes at a time when the interest of youth towards NCC has come down,” the Chief Minister said after inaugurating a slew of programmes organised by Department of Sports and Youth Empowerment here. He said that there are about 44,000 NCC cadets studying in educational institutions in the State currently.
Stating that the Government wants to have about 50,000 NCC cadets by next year, the Chief Minister said that Karnataka will hold discussions with the Defence Ministry to tweak certain regulations to shift NCC cadets to colleges.
Relaunching the flying school after a gap of six years, Mr. Bommai said that it was important for the school to remain active to protect the aerodrome. “The Government has decided to train 100 young pilots and a new twin engine trainer aircraft has also been purchased. We will try to provide additional land to make the runway safe and full- fledged,” he said.
A note from the office of K.C. Narayan Gowda, Sports and Youth Empowerment Minister, said that the work on restarting the flying school had been completed in just six months, and the Government intends to offer pilot training to 100 youth every year. “Courses will commence next week.”
The 874m runway has been made functional while five single engine aircrafts have been repaired besides purchase of a new ₹5 crore twin engine aircraft, the note said,
Heli tourism
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also launched a heli tourism project on the occasion. As part of the project, the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation has tied up with two agencies for a period of five years. Each agency will have to provide a minimum of 50 trips a years for the first two years and a minimum of 100 trips from the third year while KSTDC helps in getting permission to use Government owned helipads.
The agencies will have to tie up with hotels to pick and drop guests, a note said.
