New Delhi: A report of the Comptroller and Auditor (CAG) of India has flagged that despite considerable number of candidates appearing, the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and Sainik Schools that are mandated to provide a ready pool of motivated youth willing to serve in the armed forces, have failed to meet their envisaged targets. The audit report tabled in parliament in the recent winter session said that 38% of vacancies reserved for NCC cadets could not be filled up between 2019 to 2022. A similar trend was found in the intake of Sainik Schools in National Defence Academy (NDA), that showed a downward trend despite continuous yearly increase in the total strength of Class XII students.The NCC was established in 1948 with the objective of providing a suitable environment to motivate the youth to join the armed forces, while the Sainik Schools were established in 1961 with the aim of preparing boys for the armed forces through NDA examination.While there is a Special Entry Scheme for recruitment in the armed forces where NCC ‘C’ certificate holders are directly called for the Services Selection Board (SSB), the report found that the appearance of candidates (both male and female) for SSB of NCC Special Entry Scheme was a mere 17.66% between 2019 to 2022.The CAG report also referred to a report of the Standing Committee on Defence (38th report, 2023-24) which had found that between 2015 to 2019 the average shortfall in the selection of male cadets through the scheme was 32%.“NCC had not given due weightage to train their cadets to become officers in the Armed Forces. There was no shortfall in the selection of female cadets against the reserved posts. However, the shortfalls in selection of male cadets during the period 2019-22 remained at similar levels, ranging from 27 to 48% (38% on average),” the report said.The CAG report also said that a decline was found in the percentage of students from Sainik Schools who had joined the NDA.The report said that the overall NDA intake from 25 Sainik Schools had declined from 13.4% in 2019-20 to 10.57% in 2020-21, against the target of 20% for each year.“Further in the year 2021-22, 120 cadets could only join the NDA against a target of intake of 250 cadets. Thus, during the last three years collectively, the Sainik Schools could achieve 9.7% success rate in the NDA,” the report said.The audit noted the Ministry of Defence’s response which pointed to an increase in total NDA selections from Sainik Schools in the last decade, rising from 15% in 2010 to about 25% (around 2019-20).The CAG, however, said that while the best outcome was noted in respect of female NCC cadets, the gaps in the performance of cadets and students against targets envisaged “continue to persist and further concrete measures are required to improve their performances.”A separate CAG report tabled in parliament in April 2022 had noted a shortage in the intake of officers in the army.The report said the annual intake was on a decline and far below requisite level during the years 2014-2018, and due to the low intake the deficiency in officer cadre could not be mitigated and 14.71% deficiency existed as of January 2019.The report said that the shortage in the officer cadre was due to less induction in support cadre and through service entries.The report said while vacancies in support cadre ranged between 830 and 1180 between 2014 to 2018, induction ranged only between 522 and 607.In the regular cadre, the vacancies released were in the range of 1245 and 1640 during the same period while induction remained between 956 and 1318.“Consequently the year wise ratio of held strength of regular and support cadre in the army ranged between 1:0.22 and 1:0.28 which was not in line with Ajay Vikram Singh Committee (AVSC) recommendation of overall ratio of 1:1.1,” the report said.