Dear Editor,
I am very grateful to the present State Government of Arunachal Pradesh, Helping Hands NGO and all others involved in materialising the Chief Minister UPSC Combined Civil Services Coaching Scheme, which is in fact a historic one and a great boon for the CSE aspirants of the state.
The very objective of the said scheme as according to our super cop Robin Hibu is that the state government until now awarded financial incentives to the candidates only after she/he had cleared the civil services exam whereas the main requirement of such incentives lay during the preparatory phase when the candidates are struggling with financial constraints and not when they had landed the coveted job.
In line with his views, the State Government has also reciprocated well by the initiation of the said scheme to lend a helping hand to the talented, meritorious, needy and deserving CSE aspirants of the state.
But there are certain things with this scheme which irks me and I guess many of my fellow CSE aspirants too feels the same. So, with regards to the said scheme, I would like to lay down my points for enhancing the inclusivity aspect of the said scheme as it is the only state sponsored scheme for the CSE aspirants of the state.
1. The Mega IAS Scholarship Exam should be better published in the print media and others without restricting it to the social media domain. Instead, what I see is just a news article on the announcement of the scholarship and no detailed notification about the exam in the newspaper. I preferred an ad on it in the leading newspapers of the state. Otherwise, how do you expect those aspirants to know about the said exam who can’t afford to or don’t want to be on social media platforms?
2. The said scholarship is announced on Monday, the last date for submission of application form for the said exam is on Friday and the exam is on Sunday, all within a week. A decent enough time should be provided to the prospective candidates to appear in this exam as not all CSE aspirants of the state are on social media or reside in Itanagar.
3. The top 75 meritorious candidates of this exam will be sponsored by the Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh to avail coaching worth Rs 1 lakh each in ALS IAS coaching centre. But the results of CSE has shown us time and again that the candidates successful in these exams are of different shades and colours and not necessarily from ALS IAS coaching centres or from any other coaching centres at all. Some have qualified CSE even without coaching too.
Independence should be given to the top 75 meritorious candidates of this exam, the ones who are going to be sponsored by the Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh to undergo coaching in any coaching centre of their choice or to not to undergo any coaching at all and prepare on their own at their own discretion with the one-time grant of scholarship of Rs 1 lakh.
Such an award of scholarship by the Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh without restricting the top 75 meritorious candidates of this exam to undergo coaching in any particular coaching institute will go a long way in helping the CSE aspirants to deal with their financial constraints during their CSE preparation phase. After all, the CSE aspirants who want to undertake coaching in a coaching institute other than the ALS IAS Institute and also those who want to prepare for CSE on their own, who considers coaching centres a nuisance and a distraction in their preparation also need financial help to beat the financial constraints during their preparation.
Therefore, I request the Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh to take into account the above points and incorporate necessary changes in this scheme preferably before this upcoming scholarship exam as that Rs 75 lakhs of money is the government’s money and it should be well spent for the greatest benefits of the greatest number and not for a particular section of CSE aspirants of the state who had the privilege of knowing about the scholarship exam beforehand and are able to appear for the same in such a hasty conduct and inadequate publicity of the said exam or are just complacent in willingly or unwillingly undergoing coaching in ALS IAS institute.
Yours,
An Arunachalee
CSE aspirant