UPSC civil service examination: Application surge at Yashada

Over 6,700 applicants; many even from Chandrapur, Gondia, Gadchiroli, Buldhana

The number of applicants for preparatory training at the Ambedkar Competitive Examination Centre (ACEC), Yashada, peaked to over 6,700 this year taking a big leap from the 904 received in 2006 when it was established.

The centre in Pune trains aspirants for the UPSC civil service examination. Another trend noticed this year is that there are a lot of applicants from Chandrapur, Gondia, Gadchiroli, and Buldhana districts.

According to officials at the ACES run by the Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (Yashada) — the apex administrative training institute of the state government — there has been a consistent increase in aspirants trying to get into the academy that imparts preparatory training to students from the economically weaker sections, mainly scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST) and minorities.

In its year of inception, the academy received 904 applications for 60 seats. No applications were invited for the next two years. In 2009 the centre received around 2,000 applications, which grew to 3,500 in 2010 and 5,162 in 2011. This year, for the 70 seats, there are over 6,700 applicants.

"This year we saw a jump of over 1,500 applications from last year. This not only shows how the academy is getting popular but also indicates how more and more students are opting for UPSC," said Nitin Mane, training co-ordinator, ACEC.

"What is interesting is that a considerable number of candidates from districts like Gadchiroli, Gondia and Chandrapur have applied this time. Earlier, the applicants were largely from western Maharashtra," said Mane.

The centre has received 75 applications from Chandrapur, 36 from Gondia, 32 from Gadchiroli, 101 from Buldhana and 104 from Parbhani. Sanjay Chahande, Director General of Yashada, attributed this to increasing popularity of the centre.

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