Matters India Reporter
Darjeeling: A hill leader has floated scheme, after pujas, to provide civil servants for future Gorkhaland by sponsoring local youth for Civil Service coaching.
President of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) Ajay Edwards says, “The main reason, why we are doing [this] is that people here have the dream of Gorkhaland. When we achieve that dream, rather than having officers brought from outside, it will be better to have officers from here.”
GNLF is a political party in the Darjeeling District of West Bengal, started in 1988.
“There is potential among the youth here in the hills and many of them want a career in government service. However, most of them are financially weak. Through our foundation, we will sponsor the civil service aspirants,” assures Foundation director Edwards.
Speaking to Matters India, Edwards points out to the declining representation of candidates from the hills in the State and Union Civil Services.
Expressing confidence in youth Edwards says, “A strong need was felt to encourage and support our youth to take up this tough and challenging examination. We feel that Edwards Foundation Civil Service Scholarship program will prepare our educated youth to compete for this top level job in the administration.”
As per the initiative, a mock exam will be held for the interested candidates and among them, top 15 candidates will be selected. Of these best five aspirants will be given full sponsorship for their coaching by Darjeeling based Edward Foundation. Remaining 10 candidates will get complete study materials from a reputed coaching center for both prelims and mains.
“The selection will be made on the basis of an open competitive examination with complete transparency. The syllabus and the standard of the questions will be in line with the syllabus of West Bengal Civil Services examinations,” says Edwards.
Edwards informs that the first group chosen would be those who want to take WBCS Examinations. Details like how to apply, venue, date and time of the selection test will be made public shortly.
Insisting on transparency Edwards adds, “The selection process will be on the basis of merit with no reservation to any community. However, preference will be given to candidates belonging to the economically weaker sections of our society.”
In future, the foundation aims to sponsor aspirants to compete also in the Union Civil Services examinations conducted by the UPSC.