Of IAS probationers & ‘perception ka maara’ Bihar

Patna: It’s like a “homecoming” with a bang for Udita Singh. All of 25 years now, the Bhagalpur woman cracked the civil services examination in 2014 and is all set to serve as an IAS officer in Bihar. One of the nine probationary IAS officials allotted to Bihar from the 2014 batch, Udita says she has no qualms about returning to Bihar, otherwise infamous as badlands, because she “wanted to give back to the society” she grew up as part of.
Getting into the coveted IAS was like a dream come true for this DPS-Patna girl. She almost realised it in her very first attempt in 2013 when she had got the call for interview. “However, my name was not among the successful aspirants. My friends and family thought I would be disheartened, but I never thought of a ‘plan B’,” said Udita who, as an IIT-Delhi student, did not even take placement tests. For that matter, she did not apply for even the Indian Engineering Services examination.
“My father is an IIT-Kanpur alumnus. It, therefore, hardly thrilled him when I made it to IIT. His dream was to see me in this elite club,” she said.
Udita’s dad works as a Kishanganj-based executive engineer with the Bihar government. She has already served as a probationer BDO in Punpun block for a year. “Education will be my focus area as an administrator. Improving the efficiency of workforce will be my second priority,” she said.
Dr Aditya Prakash was practising as a medical professional in Houston (Texas) when he decided to write the civil services examination. “Bihar cadre was my first choice,” said the Purnia native who never lived in Bihar though. Schooled in Darjeeling, he studied medicine in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in Delhi. Having cracked the IAS exam in his second attempt, the surgeon is now raring to “treat” the ills plaguing the state.
Kota’s Shyam Bihari Meena and Jaipur’s Saurabh Jorawal have also been allotted Bihar cadre. Asked why Bihar, Shyam said, “Bihar perception ka maara hua hai. Its people have immense talent.”
Meena asked TOI why not Bihar, and answered himself: I have worked in my home state Rajasthan as a state administrative services officer. As an IAS officer, I was posted in Bhagalpur during the recent panchayat election. Had I been in Rajasthan at election time, people would have exerted influence on me, but nothing of the sort happened in Bihar.
A postgrad from JNU in Delhi, Shyam is an MPhil in economics from Delhi School of Economics. He got into IAS in his fourth attempt.
Jaipur’s Jorwal, an alumnus of IIT-Delhi, was earlier in Indian Railway Traffic Service. As an IAS probationer posted in Purnia, he developed a software with the help of which allotment of election symbols to a number of candidates can be made in ten minutes. “Otherwise, it takes days and weeks,” he said, pride writ large on his face.
Bihar‘s negative image notwithstanding, it is not a bad choice for someone hailing from neighbouring UP, said Amethi’s Amit Kumar Pandey who is among the nine newly-appointed Bihar-cadre IAS officers. “People in Bihar are not very demanding. Even my baby steps as an administrator made me a star of sorts in the eyes of people here,”said Pandey, an aeronautical engineer from IIT.
Nawada’s Abhilasha, a gold medallist from IGNOU and engineering grad from a West Bengal university, could not stick to her jobs with the Tata Consultancy Services and the West Bengal government because “the central civil services beckoned”.