Hyderabad, May 10: Ch Vijaya Rao, N Balaram, L Prem Chander are on cloud nine for getting into civil services despite their poor socio-economic background.
There are likely to be fewer such dreams fulfilled in future thanks to government apathy.
Not only have the budgetary allocations been slashed for the AP Study Circle, mandated to help such candidates from SC, ST and BC communities prepare for the examinations conducted by the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) and the Andhra Pradesh Public Services Commission (APPSC), but also the Government is not releasing the total allocation.
Since its inception in 1980, the AP Study Circle of the Social Welfare Department has so far helped 42 get IAS, another 42 get into IPS apart from 380 into Central services by clearing the civil services examinations conducted by the UPSC and also hundreds of officers in the State civil services who have cleared the examination held by the APPSC. The AP Study Circle has five branches – two at Hyderabad, one each in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Warangal.
While the two campuses in Hyderabad provide coaching for Central services, the campuses in the remaining cities prepare candidates for the APPSC examinations.
The study circle includes a hostel for the students.
But financially, the study circle is not very healthy. For the past few years the State government has reduced the budgetary allocation and released not more than 50 per cent of the allocated funds.
For instance, the Government allocated Rs 1.14 crore in the budget for 2009-10 but released only Rs 56 lakh in four installments. Sources said that bills amounting to about Rs 4 crore are pending with the Government due to which the suppliers are refusing to supply even groceries.
“There are instances when we pooled money to run the Study Circle for a couple of days every month. As we hail from poor families, we are forced to take hand loans from friends and relatives,” said a candidate preparing for APPSC examinations on condition of anonymity. At least Rs 2.56 crore is required for smooth functioning of all the five branches of the AP Study Circle but the Government is reluctant to provide it citing financial crunch, official sources said.
The APSC officials are forced to cut down the facilities provided to the students.
They have decided to encourage only candidates who succeeded in their previous attempts and are preparing for improving their performance.
“We are inducting only those candidates who we are confident will succeed,” an official in the Social Welfare department said.
Given the scenario it is unlikely that the APSC is going to fulfill its mandate of providing coaching to candidates for civil services from the poorest of the poor.
—Agencies