MADHYA PRADESH: In his 12-year police career in Madhya Pradesh, he has led teams in cracking big crime cases, including the arrest of a gunrunner who supplied arms to the D-Company (Dawood gang) shooters for a failed assassination plot against BJP MP Varun Gandhi, busted a inter-state smuggling racket dealing in cannibalised AK-47 assault rifles and cracked the first module of the al-Sufa terror group.
However, teaching remains a passion for 2009 batch MP cadre IPS officer Amit Singh. He was selected for a teaching job with the UP Higher Education Department when he got through the IPS. He was recently posted as Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG-Narcotics) at the state police headquarters in Bhopal.
For almost a decade, Amit Singh, 43, has been guiding Union and state civil services aspirants, particularly from Hindi heartland states of UP and MP, in successfully cracking the coveted exams, which are the gateways to top government jobs in the country.
Singh is not alone in this mission. He is accompanied by a dozen friends from his days at the University of Allahabad. They include Gujarat cadre IAS officer Alok Pande and UP State Administrative Service officers, Vaibhav Mishra and Pushpraj Singh (both currently ADMs in their home state UP).
All of them guide and help civil service aspirants free of cost. “Together, we form a group of old friends, who nearly a decade-and-half back, prepared together for the competitive exams. Our preparation ground was my flat in Mumfordganj locality of Allahabad (present-day Prayagraj). Every evening we discussed at length multiple topics/issues, which helped us a lot in cracking the civil services exams,” says Singh, who originally comes from Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district.
The core group of officers belonging to different state cadres (though all of them from UP) works in multiple ways to help civil services aspirants.
“We help the aspirants, mostly from UP and MP, through online and offline modes. While the offline mode largely includes interactive sessions at the common hall of our Sir Sunder Lal Hostel of the University of Allahabad, whenever anyone of us is there on leave, the online mode includes help through multiple WhatsApp groups, Youtube posts, dedicated Facebook pages and Zoom meetings,” says Singh.
The issues dealt with by Singh and his friends include nearly everything about UPSC exams preparations, spanning from Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) to preparing for General Studies and optional papers. It also includes working on sharpening writing (particularly essay writing skills) and preparing candidates for clearing the final barrier, theUPSC/State Civil Service interview.
Singh and friends have also helped many deserving, but economically weak youngsters in getting classes at best coaching centres in Allahabad with significant fee concessions. “We don’t count the numbers, but only believe in helping civil services aspirants (particularly those who cannot afford costly professional coaching classes) in reaching the summit point. Our efforts could have led to 10-15 successful IAS and IPS officers and allied civil services cadres, as well as 300-plus state administrative service successes in Hindi-speaking states such as UP, MP and Bihar,” he said.
Currently, Singh and his core group of old friends, are working with 300-400 young civil service aspirants, including 250-plus preparing for the final interviews of the MP Public Service Commission’s state service. The rest of them are preparing hard for the UPSC civil services interviews.
“We work on A to Z of interviews, including mock interviews through online mode and even physical interviews at places like the common hall of SSL Hostel in Allahabad. When I appeared before the interview board in the UPSC civil services 2009, one of the questions related to how technology could be used to improve teaching. At that time when premier technical institutions, like the IIT-Kharagpur, had begun with an online mode of teaching, my answer was internet-based technology intervention to ensure a boundless teaching environment,” Singh said.
Teaching for Singh has always remained his prime passion, right since he started teaching for five years at his alma mater, the University of Allahabad, in April 2004 as a UGC-Junior Research Fellow. “Along with my core group of civil service aspirant friends, I prepared for the civil services exams in the evenings and taught Indian Culture to BA-III and MA students at University of Allahabad in the mornings. I focussed on teaching History as storytelling. I’m still using the same pedagogical practices,” Singh said.