Mohali institute cadet tops merit list for OTA

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 31

Cadet Harpreet Singh of the first batch of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute (AFPI), Mohali, has stood first in the All-India Merit List for NCC Entry to the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai.

Harpreet, along with another AFPI cadet, Prabhdeep Singh, who is an entrant for the Judge Advocate General’s Department, have joined OTA this week. OTA trains officers from short service commission.

AFPI Director General Maj Gen BS Grewal (retd) said this was for the third time that a cadet from the institute had topped at the all-India level. On two occasions in the past, AFPI cadets had topped the merit list for entry into the NDA. Harpreet had earlier been a cadet at the institute’s two-year training programme that trains boys at the 10+2 level, but he could not make it to the NDA then. He did not give up his desire to join the armed forces and kept trying while pursuing his graduation.

“We encourage cadets who do not make it to the NDA to keep trying and we offer to prepare them for joining the forces at a later stage,” Maj Gen Grewal said. “There have been seven cases so far where our former cadets have joined the services after graduation,” he added.

The AFPI was conceived to prepare cadets through a two-year residential programme to join the NDA after completing their 10+2.