Srinagar: Sixteen candidates from Jammu and Kashmir — three from Kashmir and 13 from Jammu — have cracked the civil services examination this year.
While six of the candidates have already qualified for the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS), one of them is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer.
As many as 933 candidates — 613 men and 320 women — have qualified the civil services examination 2022, the results of which were announced by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Tuesday.
Waseem Ahmad Bhat, who hails from the Dooru area of Anantnag district in south Kashmir, ranked seventh in the examination. Bhat, an IRS officer, had ranked 225th in last year’s examination.
Prasanjeet Kour, a resident of Poonch district, ranked 11th in her first attempt.
“I feel delighted and fortunate that God has chosen me for this opportunity of serving my people,” she said.
Kour said her family felt very happy when the results came but were surprised by her rank. Asked about her preparations, Kour said hard work and consistency is important.
“I want to tell everyone that hard work and consistency are important and so is the faith in yourself and the Almighty because this journey is long and tiresome and having faith is important,” she said.
She said the Internet also plays a very important role in the preparation.
“In today’s times, we can study a lot from the Internet. I was also dependent on the Internet. I relied on the Internet for new material but I focussed equally on books,” Kour added.
Asked about the impact of the revocation of Article 370 on preparations for the exam, Kour said, “The student community was affected when the Internet was suspended after it was scrapped as we could not access any material on the Internet. But now things have normalised which is good for us.”
Kour said there has been an improvement in the learning environment in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Many libraries are coming up. The situation is getting normalised. Around 16 candidates from Jammu and Kashmir have cracked the examination,” she said.
Manan Bhat, a resident of Soura area in the outskirts of the city, cleared the exam at 231st. Bhat, who has a BTech degree in Electronics and Communications from The National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, cleared the exam in his third attempt.
Bhat, who qualified the JKAS last year, was at work at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre, where the third G20 Tourism Working Group meeting is taking place, when the results were declared.
“My family was elated because this was the moment everyone was waiting for,” Bhat said.
“We were at the G20 event when we came to know about the results. It was a very good day,” Bhat told PTI in a video interview.
Talking about how he prepared for the exam, he said self-preparation is the most important thing to crack the UPSC.
“Yes, coaching centres can help you with the material or the test series but the entire journey has to be yours. You have to study yourself because each one of us has different capabilities and you have to look for those capabilities, harness them, and God willing, you will be able to clear it (UPSC exam),” he said.
Bhat said he is hopeful of getting into the Indian Police Service.
“I do not know about the cadre as of now. Let’s see where I will be posted but I will serve in whatever capacity I am given,” he said.
Bhat said the examination is a competition where everyone is competing for a limited number of seats and it requires a lot of perseverance.
“There are about five to six lakh candidates who appear in this examination every year and hardly a thousand are selected. So, it is a less-than one per cent ratio. The only ones who are able to qualify are those with perseverance,” he said.
“Failures will be there in this journey. There will be downfalls, there will be people who will try to put you down. But keeping all those aside, you have to pursue your path and God willing success will be yours,” he added.
Nitin Singh, who qualified the examination in his third attempt, said he was expecting better results than his previous attempts in which he failed to qualify but never expected to be ranked as high as 32nd.
“I prepared for the last three years. I am also currently undergoing training in the JKAS,” Singh said.
He said during his coaching in Delhi, he read standard books, prepared notes and took many mock tests.
“You have to keep preparing,” he said.
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