With a pretty big bunch of Odias qualifying in the Civil Services Examination (CSE), 2014, the results of which were out recently, the State has made a mark in the national sphere.Happy over the performance of the candidates, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced to honor the successful candidates in a special ceremony to be organised by the State Government soon. This will certainly boost the morale of the Odias, who have been successful to bring laurels for the State.leading the lot is Ananya Das (16th), Md Abadaal Akhtar (35th), lingaraj Panda (38th), Kranthi Kumar Pati (50th), Pamela Satapathy (51st), Prabhat Mallick (68th), Smrutiranjan Mohanty (87th), Sandip Kumar Mallik (102nd ), Arunanshu Giri (133rd ), Avishek Tripathy (151st), Soumya Mishra (177th), Padmini Sahoo (199th ), Susant Kumar Mishra (237th ), Ashis Kumar Panda (276th ) and Satarupa Mishra (303rd).
This time everybody in Odisha is happy over the results in CSE-2014, but if one goes by percentage it is not that big.This year, the UPSC examination was held for 1,364 posts with 180 posts for Indian Administrative Service (IAS), 32 for Indian Foreign Service (IFS), 150 for Indian Police Service (IPS) and 710 and 292 posts for Central Services - Group A and Group B, respectively.Odias are getting into Civil Services in much less number compared to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other States as the State has inadequate facilities for preparation. Besides, awareness in the State is also very less.
None of the universities is providing coaching for CSE barring Ravenshaw University. In Ravenshaw, the coaching looks like a formality, pointed out an aspirant, who tried it during preparation of CSE-2014.Take the case of Allahabad University, which conducts coaching in all seriousness and results are obvious. Experts feel that it should be done with full seriousness and not fulfilling formality of providing coaching.The State Government has also done little in this regard, said a Post Graduate, who seriously tried for CSE, but failed.
This is high-time the State Government needed to provide grants to the universities to conduct coaching classes for CSE, said a young aspirant. He, however, resented that the State Government was not able to conduct Odisha Public Service Examination regularly for OAS, OPS, OFS and other posts.If OPSC exams were conducted regularly, this would help the aspirants to be on form to enter for CSE, said a former Chief Secretary.The OPSC exam is irregular and dampens the spirit of the younger lot in Odisha, where as in other States, Civil Service Examinations are an annual feature. In fact, there was a move to conduct OPSC exam regularly and an examination calendar was conceptualized, but it never came into force.Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra are taking up a number of activities to generate awareness and facilities in the States for the younger lot to get coaching and other facilities to get ready for CSE.
The State Government should tie up with various coaching institutes to set up their facilities here in the State and even the State may go a step ahead by providing free stay at Delhi for the economically weak but meritorious students for coaching in the reputed institutes for a few months. Other States are doing a lot, which is helping the young aspirants in a big way, said another wannabe IAS.Most of the States are providing free accommodation and food in theirrespective Bhawans to the students appearing in CSE interview in UPSC.Proactive steps are needed to be taken for the Gen X seriously interested to join Civil Service, which will ultimately help the State and its people.