Pala asks Centre to sanction Rs 10-cr scholarship for NE

SHILLONG, April 6: Lok Sabha member from Shillong, Vincent H. Pala has urged the Union government to introduce a scholarship scheme worth Rs 10 crore per annum for students of the Northeastern region who are keen to appear in the UPSC civil service examinations.
In a letter addressed to Union DoNER Minister, G. Kishan Reddy on Wednesday, Pala, who is the general secretary of the North East MPs’ Forum, said that he would like to bring to the minister’s notice that the representation from Northeastern states in IAS/IPS/other central civil services are very low, except for a few successful candidates from Manipur and Assam.
“Moreover, this gap is growing dramatically. Despite all efforts by the state governments, only 24 candidates from Northeast passed the CSE in 2017, which is the highest ever from the region, but is still very low. Since then, the results have been consistently on the decline instead of increasing,” Pala said.
According to Pala, 13 candidates passed the CSE in 2018, 11 in 2019 and 9 in 2020 from the region.
He further said that there are many bright students from the Northeast, but they are not able to succeed because of lack of guidance and adequate facilities.
“Therefore, there is an immediate need for intervention by the Ministry of DoNER to identify the deserving and needy civil services aspirants to undergo coaching in Delhi or in the respective state capitals,” the Shillong MP said.
Pala further said that the scholarship amount can be evenly distributed among the eight states of the Northeast.
He suggested that through this scheme a coaching institute of national repute with good success rate and having a presence in the region should identified immediately identified.
“I would appreciate if you could personally examine the proposal and take up for sanctioning at the earliest,” Pala added.