State felicitates 10 from Bengal who cracked civil services exams

Kolkata: Meghna Chakravorty, a Modern High School alumna, who ranked 79th in the Civil Services Exam 2024, scored the second highest (215) in interview, just one mark below the national highest of 216. "Now that I transition from the other side, which was filled with darkness and uncertainty, to this side, I wonder if we should ever forget the hardships and struggle that was needed to get here," said Meghna at the state felicitation event for this year's successful civil service aspirants. She and four others trained at the state-run Satyendra Nath Tagore Civil Services Study Centre. In all, 10 from Bengal cleared the exam. This was Meghna's second attempt at the exam. "Didn't go up to the interview level last time," said Meghna, who graduated from St Stephen's College and did her PG from JNU.As Urmi Sinha, who bagged 170th rank in the UPSC-conducted exam in her maiden attempt, shared her childhood dream of becoming an IAS officer, she spotted her mother, Poonam, crying in the audience. "Mamma, don't cry..." said Urmi softly, unable to continue."Can't thank SNTCSSC enough for all the help they offered my daughter," said Archana Malakar, mother of Paramita, who ranked 477. Paramita, away on training, couldn't attend the event. Rajdeep Ghosh, who has ranked 789th, will give it another shot next year. Everyone in the audience was stunned by grit as he said, "I shall be here to take the exams with you next year again." The candidates thanked the nonagenarian Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri, veteran civil service trainer and SNTCSSC's academic consultant. Pal Chaudhuri, in turn, told them about Kolkata-born and IIT-Kharagpur alumnus Ashok Khemka, known for his 57-posting career. "Instead of asking ‘what went wrong' we should perhaps ask ‘what went right'," he laughed. State chief secretary Manoj Pant, who drew parallels between the candidates and his own journey, advised that persistent effort would do the trick. "I want to reiterate what Mr Pal Chaudhuri said. Never forget that you are here to serve (the people of India) and serve with integrity," Pant said. Among the others felicitated were Sahars Kumar (153), Praveen Kumar (837), Yash Kumar (227), Prativa Lama (461), Zojila Dolkar Bhutia (765) and Rishita Das (840). "Our 2024 batch has done really well—54 from our centre cleared the prelims, 17 went up to the personality test and five made it to the final list," SNTCSSC chairperson Surajit Kar Purkayastha said.