In an effort to give a fillip to education and boost representation of minorities in All India Services (AIS), the minorities welfare department (MWD) has rolled out a scheme to sponsor 100 students from minority communities for AIS coaching. A GO was issued to this effect recently.

According to sources, the government, which had been mulling the move since last October, has earmarked Rs 70 lakh from its various agencies to sponsor the students. The students will be trained at reputed private Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) coaching institutes. "Rs 50 lakh will be taken from AP State Minorities Finance Corporation and Rs 20 lakh from AP State Christian Minorities Finance Corporation. We think that private institutes are best suited to equip students from minority communities with required skills to clear UPSC examinations. Government agencies have been largely unsuccessful," said a MWD official, who did not wish to be named.

Centre for Education and Development of Minorities (CEDM), with its nodal agency being Osmania University, has been roped in to invite tenders from private coaching centres. A test will be conducted and 100 best performers will be shortlisted for the sponsorship.

The number of Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist students would be enrolled in accordance to the proportion of their population. Reservations for women have been fixed at 33%. Sources said that though the CEDM, operational since 1994, also coaches students for UPSC examinations, it has met with little or no success on account of lack of expert faculty. This has prompted the government to start the scheme.

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Courtesy : The Times of India