Jul 05 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

Dawn of a new Ira: Differently abled leads as women bag UPSC top 4 slots

Bharti Jain & Manash Pratim Gohain

New Delhi:

Singhal Cleared Test Thrice, Was Denied Posting

While the glass ceiling in the civil services was broken long ago, it was resoundingly shattered on Saturday when women secured the top four positions in the Union Pu blic Service Commission (UPSC) examination 2014, with the No 1 rank-holder, Ira Singhal, also being a differently abled achiever, which is a first.

Delhi has a big reason to celebrate as three of the top five in the merit list are residents, while another is an alumnus of a top city school.

What would be particularly satisfying for Ira, who is af flicted by a spine-related disorder called Noonan syndrome, is that she thrice cracked the exams in 2010, 2011 and 2013, only to be denied a posting by the department of personnel and training (DoPT) in view of her “disability“, which was evaluated at 62%.

Ira's appeal was finally upheld by the Central Administrative Tribunal in Febru ary 2014, but even then she got her posting in the lower-inladder Indian Revenue Service in December 2014. Union Public Service Commission topper Ira Singhal said her repeated attempts at clearing the civil services were “never to prove a point against being denied the posting due to my physical disability , but to prove my desire to work for the country“.

Speaking to TOI from Hyderabad, Ira said, “I'd really like to work towards making our society more inclusive for persons with disability . Disability cannot be a handicap to our ability to perform, but our attitude to PWD can demoralize them.India's growth story lies in inclusiveness.“

An MBA graduate from FMS, Delhi University , Ira chose civil services over multinational companies, where she had worked earlier at much higher perks and sala ry. “Working for the country is the biggest perk.“ The ranking order reads Ira Singhal, Renu Raj, Nidhi Gupta, Vandana Rao, followed by Suhar sha Bhagat, who sportingly claims that he is still the top , ranker among males. In all, 1,236 candidates have been recommended for appointment to IAS, IPS, IFS and other top services.

The successful candidates were congratulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.“My best wishes as you begin the journey to serve the nation,“ he tweeted.

Minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh is expected to felicitate the top 10 rank-holders on Monday.

So, disability of any kind is not a hurdle.