POST RDC NCC CELEBRATIONS 2019
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Even as the Navy Foundation Mumbai Chapter celebrated the 3rd Veterans Day on 14 Jan at a grandeur scale in its quest to create awareness amongst Mumbaikars towards this section of the Society, it was heartening for Veteran ex NCC officers to receive an invite from ADG NCC Maharashtra to witness and be part of the NCC programs at Colaba on the Mah Contingent’s return from Republic Day Parade at New Delhi. The Mah Dte this year have been adjudged second Runners up among the 16 Dtes at the All India level.

              04th Feb was earmarked for an interaction of the fortunate 108 cadets with H.E. Shri C Vidyasagar Rao, the Governor of Mah at Raj Bhawan, where the cadets put up a scintillating program that was breathtakingly amazing and the Governor was highly appreciative of the Gp Song and Dance that was showcased at Delhi. A similar dazzling performance by cadets was at display in the evening at ‘Sahyadari’ in honour of Shri Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Mah.

             Meena and I were invited for the functions on 6-8 Feb at Mulla Auditorium, Azad Maidan and Sailors Institute ‘Sagar’. LtGen SK Parashar, GOC M&G Area graced the first function in the ‘state of Art’ Naval Auditorium, where the Cadets put up an enchanting program of colourful Dance and Music demonstrating the history, culture and traditions of our state. A projection was also zoomed on the screen, showcasing the Republic Day Parade of this year, where the NCC Platoons of Boys as well as Girls was being commanded by Cadets of Mah Dte. Cadet JUO Sagar Mugale from Deogiri College Aurangabad was selected to lead the combined NCC Platoon, an honour for our State..... "Do watch the clip below".... Mah this year had jumped up 3 positions from the Last year’s 6th to bring in a number of trophies to secure the Second Runners up position. After the fantastic colourful presentations on stage, we had the opportunity to interact with LtGen Parashar, GOC M&G Area, Maj Gen G Prasad, ADG NCC, Brig Dhaila, DDG NCC,  Col Satish Hange-AD Trg, Col Sanjiv Bakshi, Capts S Ravindra & VK Shukla commanding the two NCC units, Former COs Capt Amit Sanyal & Cdr SD Singh, Dr LtCdr S Kamble, Dr Maj L Sarkar, Dr Capt Nilima Prabhu, Dr Madhav Rajwade Principal Sathaye College, Dr SL Matkar Principal Patkar College  and other officers and ANOs of NCC. 

           The next Day Mr Vinod Tawde, the Hon Min of Sports and Educ of Mah was the Guest of Honour for the NCC Parade and cultural program comprising Gp Song, Gp dance and Lazium show, that were performed immaculately followed by the Semaphore Drill that conveyed a msg for the Minister which was delivered to him in the Signal Pack. This was followed by Aeromodelling Line control flying by the Air Wing Cadet who has bagged the Gold medal in RDC. The last item was the Section Battle Drill conducted with full Josh by the Army Wing cadets. Before we all moved on to witness the motivational stalls, it was heartening to see the Minister interact personally with all the cadets at length bringing out the concessions being offered to NCC cadets not only in Exams, but offering them 10 % reservation in Govt jobs. He spoke to them for about half an hour, drawing out a big round of applause.

                  On 8th Feb noon, we all were invited for Bada Khana organised in Sailors’ Institute ‘Sagar’ for all staff of NCC including the civilian staff. It was a sheer delight to meet and catch up with all the clerks and other civilian staff of the last NCC unit that I commanded and get ourselves group photographed in this jubilant occasion.

              We thanked the ADG and DDG for an invite to the exceptional extravaganza conducted by the RDC cadets, where we not only interacted with the future youth of our country but also the wonderful civilian staff of my last Unit.

           While the efforts are afoot this year to regain the top spot, that the state had glorified itself in bagging two successive Winner Hat tricks of the PM’s Banner as well as the Top honours from 2009-14, during the Golden era that I, Brig Mahesh Mathur, Brig RS Grewal, Col Rajesh Saxena , Cmde RR Iyer, Capts LG Louis George Meprath, N Someshwar, VS Salathia, Amit Sanyal and many others had been a part of, here’s wishing the Mah Directorate ‘Top honours for 2020’.