Hyderabad, May 15 (IANS) Muthyala Raju Revu, a farmer’s son who topped the civil services examination, says his sole desire is to serve people in rural areas that lack even basic transportation and medical facilities which led to the death of his sister and others.
Hailing from a remote island village in Andhra Pradesh’s coastal district of Krishna, the 27-year-old made the state proud by emerging all India topper among 474 candidates found eligible in Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) examination, the results of which were declared Monday.
Death of his sister and six friends in his remote Chinnagollapalem village that lacked basic transportation and medical facilities motivated him to take up the civil services examination so as to be able to do something for his people.
“My sister and others died because they could not get medical attention in time as my village has no transportation facility and is cut off by Godavari and Krishna rivers. The only way of reaching the village is by small boats,” said Revu.
“I am from a coastal village which lacks basic facilities like transport, education and health services. There are some more villages in our country like our village. I wanted to be a part in developing these villages as an IAS officer.”
Currently Indian Police Service (IPS) probationer at Sardar Vallabhai National Police Academy here, Revu wants to take up Indian Administrative Service (IAS) job as an Andhra Pradesh cadre officer as he feels that he could better serve the villages like Chinnagollapalem by being a civil servant.
“There are hundreds of villagers which lack transportation and other basic amenities and I want to serve them,” said Revu.
The desire to top forced him to appear for the examination for the third time. He had secured 223rd rank in the second attempt last year and joined as IPS probationer from Rajasthan cadre.
Revu’s father Narasimha Murthy is a farmer and his two elder brothers are also into agriculture. They belong to a caste among Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
A bright student right from his school days, he passed 10th standard from the government school close to his village. Despite all odds, Revu joined a polytechnic college in the same region.
He secured first rank in ECET-1998, did B. Tech from National Institute of Technology, Warangal. Revu secured third place in GATE-2002 and did Masters in Engineering (ME) in Signal Processing from Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore. He secured first rank in the Indian Engineering Services-2003 and took up a job as a railway engineer.
“There is nothing which a man can’t achieve. You have to believe in yourself, be positive and prepare to achieve the goal,” Revu said sharing the secret of his success.
Celebrations began in his village as news broke that he had topped the IAS exam. His proud parents and other family members were distributing sweets as other villagers too joined them in the celebrations.
“He was a brilliant student right from the beginning and he always used to read general knowledge books,” said Revu’s father.
This year has been fruitful for the state with 23 other candidates getting into different services under various categories. They included candidates who belonged to other states but took coaching here.
Anindita Mitra, the topper among women, who hails from Chhatisgarh, had also studied at Brain Tree institute here. She is among 18 students to qualify from the institute.