Two daughters of two farmers from Punjab were on Saturday commissioned as flying officers in the Indian Air Force (IAF), an official statement said. Ivraj Kaur and Prabhsimran Kaur, alumni of Mai Bhago Armed Forces Preparatory Institute (AFPI) for girls in Mohali, were commissioned as flying officers from the Air Force Academy in Dundigal and Hyderabad.

Flying Officer Ivraj, daughter of Jaspreet Singh, a farmer from Rupnagar district, who will be joining the Flying Branch as a helicopter pilot

While Flying Officer Prabhsimran, daughter of Paramjit Singh, who is also a farmer from Gurdaspur district, will be joining the Education Branch of the IAF, it said.

Congratulating the young women for their remarkable feat, Punjab Employment Generation, Skill Development and Training Minister Aman Arora said the fathers of the newly commissioned flying officers are proud farmers

The success of the young women will encourage children from the small towns and villages of Punjab to explore opportunities in serving the nation as commissioned officers in defence services, he said.

Mai Bhago AFPI, working under the umbrella of the Employment Generation, Skill Development and Training department, has a fully residential campus with state-of-the-art infrastructure and one of its kind in the country, Arora said.

The Punjab government has recently approved an initiative of starting a National Defence Academy Preparatory Wing for girls at Mai Bhago AFPI from next month, he said.

Expressing happiness over the two alumni being commissioned as flying officers, Director of Mai Bhago AFPI Major General J S Sandhu (retd) said this achievement will further boost their efforts of sending more girls from the state to the various armed forces pre-commission training academies.

He also extended his best wishes to these newly commissioned officers for their bright future ahead in the IAF.

Meanwhile, four cadets -- Ishan Bakshi, Manraj Singh Sahni, Harshit Bakshi and Armaandeep Singh Sodhi -- of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute (for boys), Mohali have also been commissioned into the IAF at a passing out parade held at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal and Hyderabad on Saturday.

With the commissioning of these cadets, a total of 140 cadets of Maharaja Ranjit Singh AFPI have been commissioned as officers into the Armed Forces in the last 11 years, the statement said.

Arora said Punjab feels proud of their remarkable achievement and wished them all the best in service.