Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has requested union minister of state for personnel and training Jitendra Singh for a civil services examination centre at Ludhiana or Jalandhar.
In a letter to the minister, the CM has mentioned that thousands of students from Punjab go for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) test every year but the nearest centre, Chandigarh, is a long way from home for a vast majority of the candidates. As the examinations begin in the morning, students have to travel down at least a day before and make the arrangements for stay, the letter adds.
Badal has written that apart from the other inconveniences, the travelling causes a lot of economic hardship to the poor students from villages along the international border, since they are located farthest from the capital city. Pleading their case for a closer centre, the CM recounted several instances where bright students from the disadvantaged economic background could not take the test.
Badal asked for at least one examination centre in the state, for the sake of giving equal opportunity to all.