22-year-old Qazigund boy qualifies IES exam

QAZIGUND — A youth from Qazigund area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district has brought laurels to Jammu and Kashmir by qualifying Indian Engineering Services (IES) exams conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) with 26th rank all over India.

Mir Adfar Aaghaz (22), a resident of Katran Mir Bazar area of Qazigund who is a Bachelor of Technology pass-out from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar, has qualified the exam with flying colours without any coaching.

Adfar said that he has done his schooling in his native area, however, due to financial crunch he had to move to maternal home Kamad Achabal to continue his studies.

“My maternal uncle has been bearing my all expenses. I am thankful to him along with my family who have supported me every time despite facing many problems financially,” he said.

Adfar said that before completing B-Tech in Civil Engineering in the year 2019, he appeared in Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) exams and secured 427th rank after which he got various offers for Master of Technology (M.Tech) in many IITs all over India but he preferred to prepare for IES.

“Since 2019, I have been preparing for the exams and finally, I have achieved my dream. I was expecting to be part of the list but 26th rank was a surprise,” he said.

“Three months after I completed my B.Tech from NIT Srinagar, the notification for IES exam was issued,” he said.

“Our Preliminary exam was conducted on January 05, 2020 and Mains was scheduled in June 2020. Then due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the interview was delayed to March 2021,” he said.

He said that due to the financial crunch, he studied himself without any coaching. “I was studying for around 10 hours on a daily basis and qualified the exam with ease,” he said.