Two youths from Malda clear WBCS exam with flying colours

malda: Fighting abject poverty, two youths from rural Malda have successfully cleared the WBCS examination, setting an example for one and all.

Keshab Das of Hardamnagar village under the Harishchandrapur police station is set to join the services in the Block Development Officer rank while Nishad Khaled of Bamangram village — an area infamous for criminal activities under the Kaliachak police station — is going to join the Deputy Superintendent of Police rank.

Son of a migrant worker, Keshab ranked 27 in A Grade while Nishad ranked 5 in Grade B. Both of them come from the financially backward strata of society and appeared for the examination in 2020. Recently, the results were out; the delay owing to the pandemic situation.

Keshab said he had sat for the WBCS exam in 2020 and the final result was released on February 2 this month. He ranked 27 in the WBCS Executive ‘A’ category. Gyanaban Das, Keshab’s father, said he has two sons and a daughter. “Keshab has been hardworking and talented since childhood. We never had to tell him to study,” he stated.

Jobless since the lockdown, he has been at home. He used to earn and pay for his son’s education by working as a daily wage labourer and a farm labourer. He had to take a farm loan from the bank to meet the expenses of his son’s education. He even had to sell his wife’s gold earrings. He has not been able to pay back the bank loan till now. On the other hand, Mahbubul Sheikh, a day labourer, runs his family by collecting plastic and selling it to factories. However, he has never deprived his son Nishad, despite tremendous hardships. At one point in time, Bamangram was known as the hotbed of violence with incidents of clashes, bomb hurls and shootouts being regularly reported from there. This is the first time that a youth from Bamangram under Mosimpur Gram Panchayat of Kaliachak police station is going to become an officer of the rank of a DSP — a defender of the law.

Mahbubul, his wife Unjela Bibi and the siblings are very excited. “I have been brought up in this village since childhood. There were regular incidents of bombing and firing. Political conflicts were a routine affair. Many people died owing to the violence. I always used to dream of putting an end to this. I wanted to become a law enforcer. Finally, with everyone’s blessings and cooperation, my dream has come true,”

stated Nishad.