BHUBANESWAR/SAMBALPUR: He may be 100% visually impaired but 25-year-old Prachurya Pradhan from Boden in Nuapada had a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve - become a civil servant.
Prachurya cleared the Odisha Civil Services Examination 2020 with a rank of 292 in his first attempt, results of which were declared on Friday by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC).
Currently working as an Assistant General Manager (Finance) with Odisha Mining Corporation, he was one of the two completely visually impaired candidates to have cleared the State administrative service examination.The other candidate is Prasanna Kumar Panda, who secured 266 rank. He is pursuing his PhD at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Prachurya too is pursuing his Phd in Commerce at Ravenshaw University, Cuttack after he qualified for National Eligibility Test (NET) and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).Prior to this, he completed his BCom from National College, Nuapada and PG from IGNOU. He has also completed his both groups of IPCC so far and will be appearing his CA final examination.
A chess player who has won silver medal at the 3rd Asian Para Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2018, Prachurya was felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his feat. He is even associated with Project Checkmate, a Delhi-based international organisation promoting chess among blind and underprivileged children as a Brand Ambassador.
He is the first Odia blind chess player to get International FIDE Rating and qualify for National ‘A’ Chess Championship for the Blind. In 2012, Prachurya was conferred with State Award for Individual Excellence in Bhubaneswar by Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik.“Coming from a backward district, I have always wanted to become an administrative officer which would allow me to do something for my area”, he said.
Prasanna who belongs to Khurda district attempted the state civil services examination for the second time. His first attempt was in 2019. He had also unsuccessfully attempted the UPSC examination.
“When I was in Class VII in Red Cross School for Blind at Bhawanipatna, I came across the then Collector who went out of his way to organise various workshops for career counselling and confidence building of differently-abled students. I was inspired by him and asked him if a blind person can become a Collector. He said physical disability is no deterrent if one is dedicated and confident of cracking the civil services. I follow his words even today,” said Prasanna, who hails from Balugaon near Chilika.
After completing his school education from Bhima Bhoi School for Blind and college education from BJB College, he moved to New Delhi to study at the School of International Studies under JNU. He completed his PG last year.
Given an opportunity, Prasanna said, he wants to work for the Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi region. He also wishes to contribute towards development of tourism in Chilika and socio-economic development of communities dependent on the lake. “Coming from a village located close to Chilika, I know the livelihood issues the fishermen community faces. I want to bring a change in their lives,” he said.
Apart from Prasanna and Prachurjya who are 100 pc visually impaired, four other blind candidates (with 40 per cent to 60 per cent blindness) are among the 392 who cleared the prestigious examination.
President of Odisha Association for the Blind and Odisha’s first visually-impaired OAS officer Sanyas Behera congratulated the rank-holders. A total of 15 differently-abled candidates cleared the examination.