Chief minister Sheila Dikshit paid an hour-long visit to the National Cadet Corps Republic Day camp on Saturday. 
Dikshit praised NCC members and asked them to continue their mission of nurturing young leaders and grooming them to do the role of great leaders in future.
She said the NCC, which has a strength of 15 lakh cadets, has been creating disciplined citizens. Lt Gen P S Bhalla received Dikshit with a grand guard of honour, comprising a mixed contingent of young cadets.
The NCC boys’ band of Sainik School, Kapurthala, gave a fine performance of melodious tunes. The NCC members had also laid out tableaux from all the directorates, depicting political and cultural aspects of all states.
The NCC cadets then pieced together a cultural performance that included two group dances and a ballet, which brought to the fore the talent of the cadets. While the group dance from Delhi and Karnataka showed the country’s rich cultural heritage, the attraction of the day was a ballet with ‘child labour’ as its theme.
Congratulating the cadets for their performance in diverse fields such as drills, presentations, crafts skills in aeromodelling and cultural programmes, Dikshit expressed her gratitude for the great show put up for her by the budding leaders of tomorrow.
Dikshit distributes blankets
Dikshit distributed blankets to 500 people in a function organised at her house on the occasion of Makar Sankranti on Saturday. The programme was held in association with Rajasthan Ratnakar. Labour minister Ramakant Goswami was also present.
1,000 kids ready for R-Day
At least 1,000 students from across the country will perform live to showcase the country’s rich cultural diversity in the Republic Day parade.
A troupe from Tamil Nadu will perform to please the goddess of health and rain, while students from Odisha will showcase some rituals of their own state.
There will also be a dance performance by one of Maharashtra’s fishing communities.
Students in the age group of 12 to 20 years from West Bengal, Odisha and Delhi, among others, will perform five cultural programmes in the parade.
Students of Kendriya Vidyalaya, R K Puram, will present an item on mass literacy. It is inspired by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi.
Students from Government Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Hastsal, Maharashtra, will present a folk dance ‘Kodiyancha Karavan’ of their fishing community.
Tamil Nadu will present ‘Karagam’, a folk dance that originated as a ritual dedicated to Mariamman, the goddess of health and rain.
Among other performances are ‘Thakurani’, a combination of animal dance, Ranapa dance and Jodi which is related to the religious procession of Thakurani Jatra in Ganjam, Odisha and ‘Gudum Baja’, a traditional tribal dance in Mandla and Shahdol of Madhya Pradesh.
