Haryana’s first armed forces’ prepration Institute

Plans are afoot to set up Haryana’s first armed forces’ preparatory institute in Sonepat.

Facts :

• Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has given his approval for the proposed institute in principle in Khanda village in Sonepat.
• It would provide training to selected boys from the state for commission into the armed forces through National Defence Academy (NDA), Indian Military Academy (IMA), Officers Training Academy (OTA) and other central armed police forces.
• It would run a two-year NDA preparatory course for boys, along with 10 plus 2 course, and three-year preparatory course for IMA and OTA, along with graduation degree. These courses will have 100 and 50 seats, respectively.
• The village panchayat has offered 30-acre land, which is lying barren. Located on Sonepat-Rohtak road, Khanda village is about five km from Kharkhoda and eight km from KMP Express Highway.
• Haryana, which has just about 2.09% of the country’s population, is known as the provider of finest military recruits and contributes for more than 10% of its total army recruits.
• Out of the total 832 successful cadets at IMA in 2017, 107 (13%) were from Haryana.
• The proposed institute would be named after Banda Bahadur as the legend warrior had set up his first military headquarters and raised his army in Sehri Khanda village in 1709.
• He stayed at the Bairagi Thakurdwara of Mahant Kishore Das of Nirmohi Akhara for about nine months then.

State-wise Composition of Indian Army :

Analysis :

• The institute will give a further push to state youth’s recruitment in armed forces.
• This way the institute would also serve the purpose of recognising the contribution of the legendary warrior.”
• The state government also has plans to have a regional centre of the institute for girls later in Lohgarh (Yamunanagar), which was the then capital of Banda Bahadur.
• Haryana replaced Punjab as the sword arm of the nation.The latest figures of the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun, show that the Jat-land has taken the lead in producing officers, leaving Punjab, once the nursery of the armed forced, far behind.
• The state’s growing clout in the Army is reflected in the fact that former army chief VK Singh and the army chief-designate Dalbir Singh Suhag, both belong to Haryana.

By: Harman Sandhu