Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Apr 6: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy & Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today hosted a luncheon interaction for a group of over 25 students pursuing Post Graduate course in Public Administration at Central University Jammu (CUJ).
The get-together today was a part of the periodic exercise undertaken by Dr Jitendra Singh, from time to time over the last three years, by holding such interactive meets with youth and students from J&K.
The CUJ students were in Delhi for the last two days as a part of their academic curricular exercise and internship visit to study the working of Indian Parliament. These students, yesterday, watched the parliament proceedings from the Rajya Sabha Gallery and today engaged themselves in a discussion on various aspects of Parliamentary working.
In an interaction lasting over an hour, Dr Jitendra Singh indulged himself in an informal conversation with students and also responded to the individual queries raised by each one of them. Most of the queries pertained to the syllabus and conduct of the Civil Services/ IAS Exam and Provincial Services (KAS) exam.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, with the availability of all kinds of reading material through internet and on mobile, it is far much easier for a Civil Services aspirant today to stay at home and make preparations, without going from one library to the other and even without depending too much on the coaching centres. He said, most of the toppers in the Civil Services Exam in the last few years happen to be from lower socio-economic strata, with a background of mainstream government schools like Kendriya Vidyalaya, Navodaya Vidyalaya, etc.
With the Jammu & Kashmir Public Service Commission (PSC) also having brought in uniformity in the syllabus and exam pattern of KAS on similar lines as IAS, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the aspirants now have the advantage of simultaneously preparing for both the exams i.e. IAS and allied services as well as KAS and allied services.
Dr Jitendra Singh also disclosed to the students that the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), Government of India, is planning to support the Central University, Jammu to set up a Teaching Department of Governance which would perhaps be the first-of-its-kind department in that part of India.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the students from J&K are blessed with high levels of intelligence, talent and immense potential, which is reflected in the fact that during the last few years, invariably, candidates from J&K have been among the toppers in the Civil Services / IAS exam. He said, the youth of Jammu share the same aspirations as their peers and counterparts in other parts of the country and are determined to move ahead in spite of all the local constraints.
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