J&K PSC victim in KAS among 100 IAS toppers of 2011

920 selected for Civil Services out of 2.69 Lakh candidates

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, May 11: Sarvjeet Soodan of Jammu’s Ranbir Singhpura area kept himself better placed by staying away from J&K Public Service Commission’s selection of Veterinary Assistant Surgeons (VASs) in 2010. When the results came out on February 17th and Soodan found most of the state’s brilliant veterinary graduates and post-graduates missing in the selection list, he felt pained but relieved in the sense that he had saved a lot of his time, energy and money.

He, however, could not resist the temptation of appearing in the PSC’s Combined Civil Services examination. Finding himself among a limited number of the candidates who got 4-digit marks in the Mains (1024 out of 1950), Soodan (Roll No: 0901312) was certain of his placement in the high-prestige junior scale of Kashmir Administrative Service. Notwithstanding his best performance in the Personality Test, PSC selectors did not award him more than 135 (out of 250). Consequently, he plummeted from the top in the Mains to the bottom of the final selection and was placed at the tail-end of the candidates selected for the least sought-after J&K Accounts (Gazetted) Service.

This was in sharp contrast to a PSC member’s daughter, Shadab Makhdoomi and her friend, Tehleela, who ranked at the top of the viva with 205 marks each. Both were around a hundred points below Soodan and stood nowhere among first 200 in the selection list of the Mains.

But when the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) today declared the final results of the Civil Services examination 2010-11, Soodan found himself among the first 100 toppers of the IAS. Whose evaluation is wrong---UPSC’s or J&K PSC’s? Better leave to the readers.  Last year’s IAS topper, Dr Shah Faisal must be thanking his stars for not exposing himself to an apparent humiliation by not appearing in the KAS.

Mohammad Aijaz Farazi of Poonch is another PSC victim who made it to the Central Civil Services today despite getting paltry 20-odd marks in the ‘interview’. He ranks at 794 in the UPSC selection list but still feels it better than working in an inferior Accounts service of the Combined Civil Services in J&K.  Aijaz is better placed than Israr Ahmed of Poonch who got 1130 (two points above the final cut off level of 1128) in the CCS Mains alone. He ranked at 6^th position of merit in the Mains list but fell off to 150^th position in the final selection as the PSC selectors granted him poor 20.

Dr Lokesh, who did his MBBS from Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu in 2008, crossed the magic figure of 1000 in the CCS Mains. He too was granted a poor of 30 marks in the viva and fell off to the tail-end of the final selection list. He is now in the inferior J&K Accounts (Gazetted) Service.

PSC’s officials and members have been arguing that even the most brilliant candidates do cut a sorry figure in the interview. The candidates, on the other hand, have maintained that there could be exceptions and the PSC’s “pattern” of dropping most of the high-merit candidates and selecting blue-blooded boys and girls is not natural. By and large, their perception is that PSC’s members and officials are patronized at top political and bureaucratic levels and obliging their masters is a natural phenomenon. “How do the selectors know exactly how much marks are required for an influential candidate to pass the viva?”, asked a female candidate who insisted that in over 70% cases, it was “just a fixed match”.

Meanwhile, UPSC today declared final results of the central Civil Services examination. Four to five of the 962 selectees are reportedly from Jammu & Kashmir state.

A total number of 5,47,698 candidates applied for this examination, 2,69,036 candidates appeared for the Preliminary examination, which was conducted on May 23, 2010.  12,491 candidates qualified for the Main written examination held in October-November, 2010. 2589 candidates were short listed for the Personality Test conducted in March-April, 2011.

Finally, 920 candidates (717 male and 203 female) have been recommended for appointment to the IAS, IFS, IPS and other Central Services.

Ms  S Divyadharshini (Roll NO.014421), a female candidate, has topped the Civil Services Examination, 2010. She has done B.A., B.L.(Hons.) from Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Chennai. This is her second attempt.

The second ranker is Ms Sweta Mohanty (Roll NO.316736). She has done B.Tech (Computer Science) from GRIET, JNTU, Hyderabad. This is her third attempt.

RV Varun Kumar (Roll No.021490), is the topper among male candidates. He has secured overall third rank. He has done BDS from Ragas Dental College, Chennai. This is his third attempt. The Top 25 candidates consist of 20 males and 5 females.

Top 25 candidates comprise of 15 candidates belonging to Engineering; 5 candidates belonging to Commerce, Management, Humanities, Science & Social Sciences; and 5 candidates belonging to Medical Science background. Out of the Top 25 candidates, 8 have made to the merit list in their first attempt, 4 in second attempt, 9 in third attempt, 3 in fourth attempt and 1 in fifth attempt. Of the 920 candidates recommended, 28 are physically challenged candidates ¡V 14 orthopaedically challenged; 5 visually impaired and 9 hearing impaired.

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