Buoyed by 51 Muslim candidates clearing the civil services examination this year, the Haj Committee of India has decided to provide free coaching across states and union territories from next year.
UPSC civil services aspirants are being provided free coaching at the committee's Mumbai-based headquarters for the last seven years. Two of the students who studied there were selected for the prestigious service this year.
The Haj Committee of India had recently sent a proposal to the Minority Affairs Ministry about providing coaching for the civil services in Haj Houses in all states and union territories. The ministry has accepted the proposal.
Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told Bhasha, "Two students who took coaching at the Haj Committee of India-run classes, cracked the UPSC exams. Next year onwards the government will start free coaching in Haj Bhavans in states and union territories."
Syed Zafar Mahmood, the chief of Zakat Foundation of India, which helps aspirants from economically weak Muslim families to prepare for the exam, said, "In 2017, around five lakh candidates appeared for the civil services preliminary examination and hardly 2 per cent of them were Muslims."