Tribal candidates aspiring to be civil servants are crying foul over the dishonoured promise and later lack of empathy from the officials when questioned about the non-delivery of the promise.
The Government recently selected 146 candidates from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) community promising that they would be sponsored to reputed private coaching institutes offering coaching for civil services. However, the Government has now asked them to join a hostel in Manasa Hills near Rajendranagar, far away from the coaching hubs in the city.
Officials have apparently given them an impression that online coaching would be provided with recorded lectures of coaching experts. “This is not what the Government promised in the notification issued while seeking applications,” say a group of aspirants who are also annoyed that keeping them away on the outskirts is literally keeping them away from the coaching atmosphere, which is very important to excel in a competitive exam.
A major concern of these aspirants is that the one-way communication through online or video lectures will not serve the purpose in a tough test like Civil Services. The present location is not suited for any expert to visit as the travel consumes more than three hours for one-hour lecture.
The candidates said they approached Tribal Welfare Minister Chandulal and also the Tribal Welfare officials but they were ill-treated by them when they expected some solace and empathy. “Their tone and tenor reflected the impression that they were doing a favour by giving coaching and asked us to leave if we were not interested,” some candidates who approached The Hindu said.
These aspirants from poor and rural background say they would have joined some private institutes if this was what they were promised. “We also wanted to meet the Chief Minister to appraise him of the situation, but were denied entry into Pragati Bhavan,” an aspirant said. They say the Government is spending ₹2 lakh each on candidate for the 9-month coaching but lesser amount could be used to actually sponsor them in reputed private institutes.
Telangana Intellectual Forum member Prof. P.L. Vishweshver Rao said that they would approach the court on the deviations to ensure that tribal students got best of coaching.
