5 yrs and counting at Patiala centre

PATIALA: For yet another year, none from Punjabi University’s IAS and Allied Service Training Centre made it to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) as the result of the civil services main exam was declared by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Wednesday. In fact, since 2012, there has been no selection in central services from this centre, raising questions over the quality training that otherwise provided some of the top IAS officers in the past.

The centre, set up in the ’70s, was initially meant to train students from reserved category. In 1995, it opened its doors for general category students and since then many from here, including Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, who bagged the third all-India rank in 2000, made it. The Centre’s portal claims to have 170 trainees who were selected in civil services.

The Centre’s current director since 2012, HS Walia, cited lack of resources material in Punjabi language as he said that most of those getting training here were from the rural background.

However, IAS officer Varinder Kumar Sharma, the first person to have passed the IAS exam in Punjabi in 2009, said that there was no dearth of resource material.