Twenty-four years old Dheeraj Kumar Panchal, a civil engineer, has cracked the Haryana Civil Service (HCS) exam in his first attempt, and attributed his success to the self-study.
The final results of HCS exam, declared on Friday, have thrown up several stories of grit, motivation and inspiration, with many deserving candidates from a diverse background making it to the state's elite administrative service.
Dheeraj hailed from a family with humble background. His father Anand Singh works as a superintendent at Punjab and Haryana High Court and his mother Anita Kumari is posted as Private Secretary in Finance Department at Haryana Civil Secretariat.
A Rohtak resident, Dheeraj completed his graduation from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. “After being selected as Tehsildar, I now aimed to clear the Union Public Service Commission (UPCS) to join the Indian Foreign Service,” he said.
Sharing his success mantra, Dheeraj said: “Consistency, sticking to goals, making short and crisp notes for revision is the key to success. Along with this, one needs to have multi dimensional views and remain neutral.”On what motivated him to prepare for HCS, Dheeraj said: “I was a civil engineer by profession, so I always had an interest to join the services and bring reforms in infrastructure, also as our Prime Minister has a vision of making a new India, so I always thought that being a civil engineer, how can I give my contribution in the brining the reforms.”
“My cousin, who is an IAS officer, also motivated me. Apart from this, I wanted to dedicate my success to my parents as they provided moral support throughout,” he said.Dheeraj, who had also appeared for Rajasthan Public Service Commission exam, said that while preparing HCS exam, he initially used to study for 10-12 hours, “but then, the time was limited to 8-10 hours and during this period, I used to read books of different authors which worked as stress buster for me”.