Haj panel offers coaching for civil exam

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: The Central Haj Committee of India will start a coaching class for civil services exams for Muslims students from November. This is the first time that the Haj committee has taken an intitiave to create a platform for Muslim students to excel in competitive exams. Of the total applications received so far, 40% are girl students. Fifty aspirants, who will be selected through a written test, will be provided training.

Mohammed Owais, chief executive officer of the central Haj committee who mooted this idea said, ‘We have a 18-storey building here and wanted to make use of it. There are several floors lying vacant. So we decided to start a coaching class to train IAS and other service apsirants. It will help the community and the nation too,” said Owais. The CEO himself is a 1989 batch Indian railways and traffic service officer.

“So far, we have received over a hundred applications, including from 40 girls who want to attend the coaching class. We will hire the best visiting lecturers and provide all the advanced books and notes,” he said. Students will be charged Rs 2,000 a month as fee for their accommodation, food, notes, lectures, use of library and computers.

A screening test to select 50 students will be conducted in this first week of November. An objective-type examination will be conducted for students’ selection and they will have to answer questions from a general studies paper. “We went and surveyed several coaching institutes before coming to a conclusion,” said Owais. Many Muslims appreciated the Haj Committee's move to start such a coaching class.

There is not a single coaching class in the state run by any minority institution to train students who aspire to be civil servants. The applicants include engineers from IIT, MBBS doctors, law graduates and many holding masters degrees in the science stream. “There will be separate accommodation arrangement for girls and boys here,” said Owais.

The Times of India, September 12, 2009