The Center is planning to increase the vacancies across the country and the youth in Kashmir are very keen on joining the uniformed youth organisation, a senior officer of NCC on Sunday said.

Deputy Director General of NCC directorate Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Brigadier V K Sharma said the organisation is setting up an Air Force unit in Udhampur, while one each battalion is coming up in both Kashmir and Jammu divisions to accommodate more youth.

Talking to PTI on the sidelines of a function here, he said that overall there is a vision of increasing the strength of NCC cadets in both the Union Territories of J-K and Ladakh.

“The central government is planning to increase the vacancies in NCC across the country in general and J-K in particular. We have an air force unit coming up in Udhampur, besides one additional battalion in Kashmir and Jammu. The Ladakh battalion will also get an increase in the number of cadets,” Brigadier Sharma said.

Asked about the response of youth in Kashmir, he said, “I must say they are coming forward and they are very keen on getting into NCC.”

He said there is a sanctioned strength of 27,000 cadets and there are some vacancies for both boys and girls.

“Our directorate performs activities round-the-year by organising various camps, holding social awareness campaigns and national integration camps where cadets from outside states get an opportunity to interact with the local youth,” Brigadier Sharma said.

He said they are getting proactive support from both the central government and the J-K administration.

Brigadier Sharma visited the NCC training camp in Nagrota to felicitate winning cadets who have performed well during the just concluded ‘All India Thal Sainik camp’ in New Delhi.?

Around 1,547 cadets (867 boys and 680 girls), drawn from 17 NCC Directorates covering all the States and Union Territories participated in the 12-day camp from September 19 to 30.

“Our directorate had done very well during the competition. Overall, our directorate has come 4th from the boy's side and 14th from the girl's side. A lot of medals have been won by the directorate,” he said, adding the cadets from four categories -- senior division and senior wing (boys) and Senior division and junior wing (girls).

He said the cadets participated in various competitions including firing, tent pitching, field craft and battle craft, health and hygiene and obstacle course.