Soon, Purulia to open coaching centre to prepare students for competitive exams

Kolkata: The Purulia district administration has taken up a unique plan to provide coaching to students preparing for competitive examinations.

Kanyashree beneficiaries will get preference. The classes will be taken by IAS, IPS, WBCS and WBPS officers along with experienced teachers and professors.

It may be mentioned that in almost all the administrative review meetings that were held recently, the students have been allowed as the Chief Minister wants them to sit for competitive examination and become bureaucrats.

In one of the administrative meetings she had said that the students should develop the attitude of sitting at the competitive exams and become bureaucrats so that they could serve Bengal in a much better way. It may be mentioned that after coming to power in 1977, the Left Front government had discouraged students from Bengal to sit for the IAS and IPS examinations. In Kolkata, there were only three centres to coach students preparing for all India and state administrative services while there were no centres in the district. As a result, the students did not develop the attitude to sit for the examinations.

The then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu had announced that the state administration would be run by WBCS officers. During 34 years of CPI(M) rule, between 1977 and 2011, Bengal had produced less than 34 IAS and IPS officers and during the past three decades, none could rank within 20 in the IAS/IPS examinations. Many of those who got IAS or IPS during this period took coaching in Delhi. In Odisha and Bihar there are many organisations that coach students who prepare for examinations held by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The result is disastrous. An IAS officer has to look after three departments as Secretary or Principal Secretary as there is shortage of bureaucrats.

After coming to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee insisted that centres will be opened all over the state to coach students preparing for administrative examinations.

Purulia district administration is the first in the state to open the course. Several senior bureaucrats have agreed to coach the students many of whom will come from SC and ST background.

It may be mentioned that several institutes have come up in Kolkata that offer coaching for competitive examinations. The Administrative Training Institute (ATI) also helps students who are preparing themselves for state Civil Services examinations.