– Mohammed Atherulla Shariff
Bengaluru: Just a year before the Karnataka Minority Welfare Department commenced a pilot project of helping students to get through civil services and other competitive examinations. It has begun bearing fruit now, reports Irshad Vennur at Eedina.com.
More than 60 students who underwent the free coaching at the Haj Bhavan premises have cracked the state level exams and are well placed now.
According to Manoj Jain IAS, secretary to state Minority Welfare Department, around 440 students took the coaching from reputed institutes sponsored by the department, were provided with accommodation and library facility at the Haj Bhavan in the first year after the scheme was launched in October 2023.
Earlier the vast premises of Haj Bhavan was in use only for two months a year during Haj times, the department thought of making other usage of the infrastructure. A proposal was placed before the Minorities Welfare minister Zameer Ahmed Khan and Chief Minister Siddaramiah, which was approved and budget of 17 crores was allocated to establish a residential coaching centre for minority students, according to Jain.
Jeelani Mokashi, Director of Minorities Welfare Department was quite a happy person at the progress of the scheme. He said about 3000 applications were received after the announcement, and 438 of them were shortlisted. After a 10 months training, 62 of them succeeded in various exams and majority of them went to the police department at higher level posts.
Assistant Director at the Directorate of Minorities Anjanappa says for many years the department has been paying monthly stipend to the aspirants who were taking coaching at Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. But they were not monitored. Later it was thought of establishing a coaching centre with accommodation facility at Haj Bhavan, and it has paid off.
Of the 62 successful students few are in police department, District Armed Reserve Force, Public Works Department, State Intelligence Department, City Armed Reserve Force, Silk Department etc.
