Tuesday, October 15, 2019

1st blind woman IAS officer reports for duty

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Thiruvananthapuram: 15.10.2019

A young woman with a white cane was led to the office of sub-collector at civil station, Kudappanakunnu, around 11am on Monday. As Pranjal Patil took the seat in presence of social justice special secretary Biju Prabhakar and district collector K Gopalakrishnan, the first blind woman IAS officer in the country was taking her first official post. Incidentally, international White Cane Day (White Cane Awareness Day in India), which aims to celebrate achievements of visually-challenged people, is observed on Tuesday.

Prior to this, the 2017 Kerala cadre officer has served as the assistant collector of Ernakulam during her training period. 




NEW HEIGHTS: Pranjal Patil took charge of her first official post as the Thiruvananthapuram sub-collector on Monday

We should never feel defeated: IAS officer

After assuming charge Patil told reporters, “I am feeling extremely glad and proud to take charge. I will be expecting a lot of support from the people of Thiruvananthapuram, my staff and everybody to be able to work for the people.” The collector and social justice special secretary shared sweets with the subcollection at the function. Incidentally, Patil was denied her post in Indian Railway Accounts Service despite a UPSC rank of 773 in 2016. Though it was a clear violation of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, Patil did not waste her time fretting over it. In her next attempt, Patil cleared UPSC again with a rank of 124 in 2017, becoming the first blind woman to achieve the fete.

“We should never feel defeated. We should never give up. With our efforts, all of us will get that one breakthrough we all want,” she said. Hailing from Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra, Patil lost her eyesight at the age of eight due to retinal detachment. She had her graduation in political science from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and masters in international relations from JNU. Patil completed her studies with the support of various softwares that read out printed text into speech.

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