C’garh IAS officers to teach students from Naxal-hit areas

Raipur: Chhattisgarh’s IAS officers, including the chief secretary, will take classes at a government-run residential school here meant for students from Maoist areas, to motivate them for better career prospects.

“Chief Minister Raman Singh has directed that the IAS officers must teach once in a week at ‘Prayas’ residential school-cum-coaching institute,” an official release said here today.

The decision in this regard was taken during a review meeting of the tribal development department chaired by the chief minister yesterday at Mantralaya, it said.

During the meeting, Singh also gave consent to set up a Scheduled Tribe Research and Training Institute in ‘Muktangan’ premises of Naya Raipur. The institute will be developed in a 10 acre area, it said.

Prayas was set up in July 2010 in Raipur to provide free coaching to meritorious students selected from Naxal-affected districts of Bastar and north Chhattisgarh.

The institute, meant for students of classes XI and XII, hogged limelight in 2012 when a large number of its students got selected in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE).

At present, 266 students are enrolled in the school.

So far, as many as 298 students of the institute have been granted admission in different engineering colleges across the country after qualifying the competitive exams, the release added.