Minister urged to introduce scholarship scheme for UPSC aspirants in NE

The North East MPs’ Forum (NEMF) has urged the Central government to introduce a scholarship scheme worth Rs 10 crore per year for students of the northeastern region who are keen to appear in the UPSC examinations.
Secretary General of NEMF Vinent H. Pala in a letter to Union DoNER (Development of North Eastern Region) Minister G. Kishan Reddy said that the representation from northeastern states in IAS, IPS, and other central civil services are very low, except a few successful candidates from Manipur and Assam. Pala mentioned in the letter that this gap is growing considerably every year.

He said that despite all state governments’ best efforts, in the year 2017 Union Public Service Commission examination had only 24 successful candidates from northeast, which is the highest ever from the region, “though it was very low”.

Since then, the results have consistently declined instead of increasing, the letter said.

Pala in his letter said that, in total, 13 in 2018, 11 in 2019 and 9 in 2020 were successful in the UPSC exams from the region.

“There are many bright students from the northeast, comprising eight states, but they are not able to succeed because of lack of guidance and facilities.

“Therefore, there is an immediate need for intervention by DoNER Ministry to identify the deserving and needy civil service aspirants to undergo coaching in Delhi or at state capitals,” the NEMF said.

It said that to overcome this problem, “introduce a scholarship scheme with an amount worth Rs 10 crore per year”, adding that this proposed fund can be evenly distributed with each of the 8 northeastern states, including Sikkim.

In this scheme, a coaching institute of national repute with good success rate from northeast and having presence in the region should be identified immediately, the NEMF stated.