Selected Student Police Cadets (SPC) in the Indian state of Kerala will have an all-expenses paid trip to Sri Lanka in April 2015.

During the week-long tour, the cadets will have an interaction programme with Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa who had sought the state’s help to emulate the programme in the island nation.

SPC state nodal officer DIG P Vijayan said the tour programme was part of the island nation’s plan to replicate the project. “We have been asked to send a 25-member team comprising students, teachers and cops associated with the project. They will visit prominent educational institutions and tourist destinations,” he said.

Vijayan said a team from Sri Lanka would visit the state to study the project in detail.

SPC, the school-based youth development initiative of the state police, has been replicated in several other Indian states. Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and Karnataka have launched the project while Puducherry, Goa, Orissa, Punjab and Uttarakhand are working out the modalities.

“The Border Security Force also had discussions with us. it is learnt that they are in the final stage of implementation in selected border areas,” Vijayan said.

Currently, around 25,000 students of 325 schools in the state are members of the SPC. Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala recently announced that the project would be expanded to all schools. - ENS