Civil servant aspirants from the state and the north-east will soon have a coaching school to fulfill their dreams. The higher education department is all set to inaugurate an IAS coaching centre at the Bidhan Nagar College. Worried about the dwindling number of candidates qualifying for IAS and other allied services, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to initiate the new venture.

Over the past few years, students from Jharkhand and Bihar have bagged high ranks in the civil service examination while West Bengal has lagged behind. There are in fact very few IAS officers from the state cadre currently serving in the state government and even at the Centre.

"This year, there was only one student who secured a rank in the top 100 in the UPSC exams. He had taken tuitions from a private IAS training institute. In previous years, there have been none from the state among the toppers. The new coaching centre will be run in association with Bidhan Nagar College. The idea is to change the scenario by handholding the aspirants," said a higher education department official.

Presidency College runs an IAS training centre which will be closed down soon. "The college which has been upgraded to a university asked for additional space to meet the existing space crunch. The society that runs the IAS centre at Presidency University has sent a letter and informed us that the training centre will formally close as the University authorities are insisting on utilizing the space for their official purpose to sort out the space crunch," said education minister Bratya Basu, confirming the news.

The course will be coordinated by Bidhan Nagar College and will be supported by the state government. "They have the logistics and adequate space to start the IAS and allied services training institute. If necessary, more space can be created later if the institute needs further expansion.

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Courtesy: indiatimes.com