Free coaching, financial assistance for meritorious students in J

Jammu, Jan 27 (UNI) The Jammu and Kashmir Government has announced free coaching and financial assistance for the state's meritorious students to help them join the prestigious Indian Administrative Services (IAS).

The scheme, wherein the meritorious students will be given coaching in New Delhi's reputed institutes, is a part of the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's policy to build capacity among government employees and widen the opportunities for students to successfully compete at the national level.

The J&K Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (IMPA), designated by the government as the nodal agency to organise the coaching for IAS examinations, has invited applications from desirous students.

The applications should reach at the IMPA offices in Srinagar and Jammu till February 9, 2008.

''The coaching programme would be of six months and held in two phases. The first phase of two month's coaching would be for the Preliminary Examination, and the second phase of four months for the Main Examination,'' said IMPA Director General Madhav Lal in a statement today.

The eligibility criteria for the open merit candidates would be minimum of 65 per cent marks for Commerce, Science and Engineering graduates; 60 per cent for Arts graduates while the minimum percentage of marks for post-graduate candidates in arts subjects would be 55 per cent in graduation, and 50 per cent at PG level, he said.

In case of candidates belonging to reserved categories of SC/ST and OBC, the minimum percentages would be uniformly 5 per cent less than for the open merit candidates, the DG IMPA said, adding that the annual family income of the candidate from all sources should not be more than Rs 2 lakhs.

As incentives, coaching fees of the concerned institute would be reimbursed to the selected candidate in full subject to a maximum of Rs 8,000 per month, besides providing a monthly stipend of Rs 5,000 for the six months of coaching.

Besides, a lump sum financial assistance of Rs 10,000 would be also given to each selected candidate for purchase of books and periodicals.

UNI VJ PY DB21335