VIJAYAWADA: The NTR Vidyonnathi scheme, which is aimed at providing free coaching to UPSC aspirants from the State in top institutes across the country, is facing a hurdle this year. Due to the delay in selection process of candidates and institutes, the preparation time for the candidates has been reduced to six months.
According to sources, the coaching for the selected candidates this year will start only by mid-November whereas the UPSC prelims will be held in June. That means, the students will get training only for six months instead of the stipulated nine-month coaching under the scheme.
For the 2018-19 batch, the government has called applications from BC, EBC, Brahmin, Kapu, SC, ST and Minority candidates. The intake of applications was closed on June 10 and the examination took place in the last week of June. As many as 65,155 candidates have applied for the NTR Vidyonnathi scheme in 2018-19 and 3,850 among them were selected for training in any of the 20 institutions selected by the government.
In fact, the State government is spending nearly `2 lakh on each candidate under the scheme. While `1 lakh is being paid directly to the institute, a stipend of `90,000 is being paid to the candidates for the nine-month coaching.
While officials claim that classes will start from November first week, the institutes say that it is likely to start from November 10-15.
And managements of some institutes assert that six months are not enough to make the candidates capable to crack the UPSC Prelims.
“Usually, the selection of candidates will be completed by June and the coaching will start from July so that apart from completing syllabus, the candidates will get ample time for preparation and revision. This year the students will get less time for training. Obviously, the chances of candidates getting selected are very low,” opined a trainer of an institute on condition of anonymity.
Speaking to Express, K Siva Shankar, Managing Director of Kapu Corporation, said, “The classes will start by the first week of November. This year, the process was delayed. However, we will take necessary steps, such as organising extra classes for students during Saturdays and Sundays, to complete syllabus and make the candidates ready for the Prelims.”