Patiala lad tops PCS exam

Ravneet Singh
Tribune News Service
Patiala, June 14

Devdarshdeep Singh (24) of Punjabi University, Patiala, topped the Punjab State Civil Services Combined Competitive Exam-2018, results of which were declared by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) today.

The second position has been bagged by Jagnoor Singh Grewal of Mohali, while Parleen Kaur Kaleka of Chandigarh has got the third position.

Making the city proud, five candidates from Patiala have featured in the merit list, including Deepankar Garg of Urban Estate (7th position), Rupinder Kaur of Vikas Colony (8th), Divya Singla of Gurbaksh Colony (9th) and Jinsu Bansal (11th).

Devdarshdeep Singh, whose father Darshan Singh Aasht, is a non-teaching employee in Punjabi University and mother Rajwant Kaur is a professor of Punjabi in the same university, has also bagged 12 all-India ranking in the IFS-2018 and remained topper from Punjab.

His mother Rajwant Kaur said, “It was his first attempt at the PCS exam. He has done BTech in civil engineering from IIT-Delhi, which he completed in 2016. He has been preparing for the exam since then.”

Having his hands full with positions bagged in the UPSC as well as PCS exam, Devdarshdeep said he was yet to decide where he would join. “The cadre is yet to be released for the IFS rankings. I am most interested in the IFS.” He said he had also appeared for the UPSC prelims-2019 and aimed to become an IAS officer.

Talking about his preparation, he said he did not take coaching for any of the exams. “I relied on self-study and focused on previous year question papers. Besides studies, I am interested in puzzles, but teaching is my hobby,” he said.

Around 22,000 candidates had appeared in the preliminary examination for 72 posts, while the interviews were conducted from May 27 to June 14.