The National Cadet Corps (NCC) is often regarded as the second line of defence and NCC is proving this statement true in these times of crisis caused by COVID-19.
The cadets of 46 Jharkhand Battalion NCC are requesting and teaching people to maintain social distancing, sanitize their hands regularly, appealing the people to follow the Government rules and also distributing masks.
The cadets are spreading social awareness messages like 'Follow Lockdown', 'Support the Government', 'Stay away and be Safe', 'Sanitize your Hands', Follow social distancing Norms, 'Don't spit here and there' through display of Placards.
It is heartening to note that, cadets of 46 Jharkhand Battalion have so far distributed more than free of cost 300 self-made masks to the most needy among the general public of Gumla.
The Cadets have been employed for data collection and compilation to keep a record for future contact tracing, if required.
Few Cadets are also assisting the civil administration in traffic management. Jharkhand Nodal Officer of 'Exercise NCC YOGDAN', Collennel RS Chauhan said, "The ongoing fight of the nation against COVID-19, provides an ideal platform to volunteer youth from NCC to actively contribute in this National Emergency.
NCC is being the largest uniformed youth organisation of the Country, have come forward and launched 'Ex NCC YOGDAN' to assist and supplement the relief efforts and functioning of agencies employed to fight this disaster.
Assistant DC Gumla, Manish Kumar has been directly and actively involved with Cadets in this exercise and he regularly moves around and is personally passing instructions to everyone to follow and maintain the norms of social distancing. On being enquired about the details of actual deployment of cdts of 46 Jharkhand Battalion as part of 'Ex NCC YOGDAN' in Gumla, the Officiating Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel, Sudeep Sinha explained that, " SD and SW NCC cadets have voluntarily come forward in this hour of crisis for our nation and are willing to contribute in any way without seeking any reward or incentive for themselves.
He also said that these cadets have become role models for the youth of this area as they are forgoing the comforts of their homes and are right in front to help the civil administration in their fight against this deadly virus.
During Saturday weekly market, the cadets showed great enthusiasm and managed to maintain discipline by controlling the crowd. The cadets demonstrated great maturity in managing huge crowds by asking them to follow queue discipline and also ensuring proper social distancing.
Everyone at the entry point were issued tokens for adherence of time limit and we're also sanitized before their entry to the Sabji Market. Lieutenant Hemant Kumar Bhagat, Third Officer Abhijit Jha, Subedar Phool Singh, Naib Subedar Shyam Sunder and other NCOs supervised the tasks carried out by NCC Cadets at four locations in Gumla.