Tribal girl among 8 make it to civil services, none from Valley

JAMMU: Rehana Bashir, resident of a remote village in Poonch has become the first Gujjar woman to qualify the prestigious Civil Services Examination-2018, the final results of which were declared Friday night by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

Besides Rehana (AIR 187), at least seven more persons have made it to the coveted services and they include Abhishek Augustya (AIR 268), Sunny Gupta (AIR 320), Harvinder Singh (AIR 335), Babar Ali Chagatta (AIR 364), Gokul Mahajan (AIR 373), Devahuti (AIR 668) and Ankush Bhagat (AIR 730).

Interestingly, none of the candidates from Kashmir has emerged so far into the list.

Rehana Bashir made history becoming the first Gujjar woman from the state to qualify for the civil services. A MBBS by education, Rehana belongs to the remote village of Salwah in Poonch. She has secured 187th All India Ranking, and in probability would be getting the Indian Administrative Services. Rehana’s younger brother Amir Bashir (AIR-843, 2017) is a serving IRS officer. She has credited her brother for her success.

Abhishek Augustya of RS Pura has emerged as the topper among boys from Jammu as he secured 268 rank, followed by KAS officer of 2018 batch, Sunny Gupta (AIR 320), who is a resident of Rajinder Bazar Jammu.

They are followed by Harvinder Singh (AIR 335) and Babar Ali Chagatta (AIR 364). While Harvinder belongs to R S Pura and is serving as Assistant Engineer in PMGSY, Udhampur, Babar comes from the remote Mahore village in Reasi. Babar has completed his schooling from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Udhampur and his graduation from Aligarh Muslim University.

Next in line is Gokul Mahajan from Kathua who improved his ranking by securing AIR 373. Last year Gokul had secured AIR Rank 564.

The other two to have made it to the final list are Devahuti (AIR 668) and Ankush Bhagat (AIR 730). Devahuti belongs to Jammu and has done her law degree from the University of Jammu, whereas Ankush comes from Akhnoor.

In a statement, the UPSC said a total of 759 candidates (577 men and 182 women) have been recommended by the Commission for appointment to various services like IAS, IPS, IFS etc.

Kanishak Kataria, a B.Tech from IIT Bombay, has topped the civil services final examination 2018, while Srushti Jayant Deshmukh is the topper among women candidates securing an overall fifth rank.

Kataria belongs to SC category and qualified the examination with mathematics as his optional subject. He is a B.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering).

Deshmukh, a B.E.(Chemical Engineering) from Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal, is the topper among the women candidates securing an overall fifth rank, the statement said.

The civil services (preliminary) examination, 2018 was conducted on June 3, 2018. A total of 10,65,552 candidates applied for this examination, out of which 4,93,972 candidates actually appeared.

A total of 10,468 candidates qualified for appearance in the written (main) examination which was held in September-October, 2018. A total of 1994 candidates qualified for the personality test conducted in February-March, 2019.

The top 25 candidates comprise 15 men and 10 women. The recommended candidates also include 36 persons with benchmark disability (11 orthopedically handicapped; 12 visually challenged, 11 hearing impaired and two multiple disability).
The second rank holder Akshat Jain, an engineering graduate from IIT Guwahati, told he was elated and one of the reasons why he appeared in the civil services examination was to serve the society.

Hailing from Jaipur, Akshit's father is an IPS officer while mother is an Indian Revenue Service officer, who also motivated him to join the civil services.

"I would like to serve as an IAS officer in my home state Rajasthan," he said.

Deshmukh, who will be the first civil servant in her family, is an M.Phil in chemical engineering. She said she had faith in herself and that helped her clear the prestigious examination in her first attempt.

Daughter of an engineer father and a pre-school teacher mother, Srushti hails from Bhopal.

"I think it is the consistency and the faith in yourself that make one achieve all goals," she told.

Appointment to the various services will be made according to the number of vacancies available with due consideration to the provisions contained in the rules for the examination, the UPSC said.

The number of vacancies reported by the government to be filled is as under: IAS-180 (including reserved category), IFS-30, IPS-150, Central Services Group 'A'-384, Group 'B' services-68.

Educational qualification-wise the top 25 candidates belong to subjects like Engineering; Sciences; Economics; Law; Mathematics; History; Political Science; Public administration and Commerce graduating from premier Institutions of the country such as IITs, NIT, NLU, BITS Pilani, DU, Mumbai University, Anna University, Pune University, etc.

Optional subjects of the top 25 candidates in the examination ranged from Anthropology, Chemistry, Commerce & Accountancy, Geography, Law, Maths, History, Political Science & International Relations, Public Administration, Psychology, Sociology, and English Literature.