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Cotton varsity foundation day celebrated

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, May 27 - The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which is engaged in selecting officials for the Central services in India, has still been maintaining robustness in selecting candidates strictly on the basis of merit. It has been trying to create a civil service which is diverse and representative, reflecting the pluralistic ethos of the country.

This was the observation made by former UPSC Chairman Prof David R Syiemlieh. He was delivering the 118th foundation day lecture of Cotton University at the Kalaguru Bishnu Rava Auditorium of the University here this afternoon.

It needs to be mentioned here that Sir Henry Cotton, the then Chief Commissioner of Assam (1897-1902), was the main British bureaucrat who extended support to the demand of the Assamese elites like late Manik Chandra Barooah for setting up a college in Assam. Following his initiatives, a college was set up in Guwahati (then Gauhati) on May 27, 1901 and as a mark of recognition to his service in setting up this college, it was named after him. Cotton College was elevated to a university in 2017.

Prof Syiemlieh called for undertaking more studies on Sir Henry Cotton.

A renowned historian who has played a major role in re-writing the history of the Northeast and was also the Vice Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh, Prof Syiemlieh maintained that of the one million to nearly three million applications received by UPSC these days, the Commission has to shortlist about 50 per cent of the applicants for calling them to the preliminary tests and finally it selects the right candidates for the Central services strictly on the basis of merit.

He maintained that these days the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Foreign Service are not the cynosures for many of the candidates. They opt either for the police services or the defence services nowadays.

Filmmakers Rima Das of Village Rockstar fame, Utpal Barpujari of Ishu fame, and Bahni Kumari Telenga who cleared the UPSC this time, were felicitated by University Vice Chancellor Prof Bhabesh Chandra Goswami for their achievements. Das, Barpujari and Telenga are all Cotton College alumni. At the function, awards for the University�s student achievers were also presented.

Earlier, State Education Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya laid the foundation stone of the New Academic Building of the University.

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