Lt Gen BK Bopanna visited the Indian Military Academy (IMA) on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebration of the 1st NCC Graduate Course. The Lieutenant General was in Dehra Dun on a three-day official visit.

Lt Gen BK Bopanna was commissioned in the 11th Gorkha Rifles in February, 1965. He is a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, College of Defence Management and the National Defence College. He has held several command and staff appointments. He commanded 5/11 Gorkha Rifles, Natu La Brigade in Sikkim and 21 Mountain Division. He took part in both 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan and has had a rich experience in counter-insurgency operations in the North-East. He assumed the appointment of the Director General of NCC on November 1, 2001. This was his first visit to Dehra Dun as part of the occasion to celebrate the golden jubilee of the 1st NCC Graduate Course. On this occasion, he addressed a joint gathering of officers of the pioneer course and NCC cadets at the Khetarpal Auditorium, IMA.

The 1st NCC Graduate Course passed out from IMA in June 1952 as part of 9th Regular Course. In this course, 15 officers had joined IMA. Out of these officers, five of them became Generals and two attained the rank of Brigadiers.

Felicitating the pioneers of the NCC on the occasion of the golden jubilee, Lt Gen BK Bopanna asked the budding NCC cadets to take the example of these torch-bearers. He appraised the gathering of the strides taken by the NCC over the past 50 years. From a modest strength of just 1 lakh in 1948, the strength of NCC has grown to 12 lakhs today. The government had sanctioned an additional strength of one lakh. Besides this, the Committee of Ministers constituted after the Kargil conflict had recommended compulsory NCC training for the youths of the entire nation. Though it is not feasible to give NCC coverage to all with the present infrastructure, the work could be shared by organisations such as Bharat Scouts and Guides and Nehru Yuvak Kendras, he suggested.

Incidentally, NCC cadets from all over the country who were on a 15-day attachment at IMA attended the function. The senior officers of the 1st NCC Graduate Course who were present during the function were Maj Gen PD Sharma, Maj Gen BB Kumar and Brig UC Chaturvedi. While speaking to the budding NCC cadets, these officers said that the NCC had instilled the qualities of discipline, leadership and a keen sense of duty among them even before they had joined IMA.