The North East MP’s Forum on Wednesday urged the Union DoNER Minister G Kishan Reddy to introduce a scholarship scheme for civil services aspirants from the North East region.
In a letter to Reddy, secretary of the Forum Vincent H Pala said, “For this, I urge you to introduce a scholarship scheme with an amount worth Rs 10 crores per annum. This can be evenly distributed with each of the 8 North Eastern states. In this scheme a coaching institute of national repute with good success rate from North East and having presence in the region should identified immediately.”
The Shillong MP said that the representation from the North Eastern states in IAS/IPS/other central civil services is very low, except a few successful candidates from Manipur and Assam.
Moreover, this gap is growing dramatically. Despite all state governments’ efforts, the year 2017 exam had only 24 successful candidates from North East, which is the highest ever from the region, which itself is very low.
Since then, the results consistently declined instead of increasing. In total, 13 in 2018, 11 in 2019 and 9 in 2020 exam were successful from the region, he said.
He said there are many bright students from North East, but they are not able to succeed because of lack of guidance and facilities. Therefore, there is an immediate need for intervention by DoNER to identify the deserving and needy civil services aspirants to undergo coaching at Delhi or at state capitals.