Hyderabad: Sports dept acting like a miser; no parade allowance for NCC cadets

Hyderabad: At a time when the country and the State are all set to celebrate the 77th Independence Day, the Telangana Sports and Youth Services department has no money for its National Cadre Corps (NCC), the youth wing of the Indian Armed Forces.

The organisation, with ‘nation first’ as its motto, started a year after independence in April 1948. It has been nurturing leadership qualities among youth with patriotic energies to serve whenever the country needs them.

Spread across NCC units from the high school to college levels, recruiting the cadets who have proved their mettle--both in war and peace times. However for the past several years, NCC cadets in schools and colleges in Telangana are getting a raw deal from the Sports and Youth Services department. It has have been acting like a miser when it comes to the NCC--it is not giving funds even to meet parade expenses to cades.

Speaking to The Hans India, the principal of a prominent college in Abids said, “the Education department officials ask us to send NCC cadets to several events--from official State celebrations like Independence Day, State Formation Day and the like.”

“Our boys and girls will also serve during festivals, distress times like floods and other occasions. Forget about giving anything extra, it is years since the government enhanced the parade allowance for NCC. Both boys and girls joining NCC in schools and colleges in Telangana are meeting the parade allowance from their own pockets,” said an NCC official. ‘The State Sports and Youth Services department has all the money to organise several events on different occasions, but, it does not have funds to release enhanced parade allowance to NCC cadets, rued Sai Deepthi (name changed), a student from a private college for women in Narayanaguda.

More interestingly, inquiries revealed neighbouring Maharashtra sends its NCC cadets for the Republic Day parade meeting flight tickets. Their counterparts in Telangana NCC have been spending from their own pockets.

Efforts to reach out to seek clarification from Sports and Youth Services Minister V Srinivas Goud yielded no results till the time of filing of report.