In the first large-scale entry of professionals in government activity, the Union government is all set to enrol as many as 156 post-graduates under the prestigious Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellows Scheme in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh will hand over the appointment letters at a function, which will be attended by Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Besides their bearing the mantle of being the Prime Minister's fellows, the interesting aspect of the selection is that all of them — and they include IIT and IIM graduates — have accepted the challenge of spending the entire two years' tenure of fellowship in the tough environs of 78 districts affected by left wing extremism (LWE).
No less significant is the fact that as many as 40 young women have come forward to work with the district administrations to usher in development with responsive governance in the Maoist-affected regions where the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) has been implemented. Two fellows will be posted in each of the 78 IAP districts. They would coordinate and evaluate the programmes being implemented in the region.
The selection process was tough with as many as 8,560 candidates aspiring for the prestigious fellowship.
They were shortlisted on the basis of their academic qualifications and the three essays written by each of them; subsequently 816 candidates had to undergo rigorous interview and group discussion conducted by panels that included State government officials.
The youths include 59 engineering graduates and seven medical graduates. Others are from streams such as literature, linguistics, science, law, commerce, social and economic and agriculture, computers and journalism.
Instead of reservation, a preferential treatment was given to SC, ST and OBC candidates resulting in enrolment of 28, 14 and 24 fellows from these categories respectively.
In the age group of 22 to 30, most of them have a work experience of just about two years and will be given a remuneration of Rs. 50,000 a month in the first two months of their training and Rs. 65,000 a month which the Ministry of Rural Development will bear.
