While myriads of civil service aspirants could be seen swarming coaching centres in Delhi and Hyderabad doling out thousands of rupees, a tiny village in Uttar Pradesh has achieved the distinction of having at least one Civil Service officer from each of its households.
The underdeveloped Madho Patti village in Jaunpur district has just 75 households. However, 47 persons from these families have already made it to the elite Indian Civil Services.
The Civil Service legacy of the village unwinds back to 1952 when trailblazer Indu Prakash Singh got enrolled into the Indian Foreign Services (IFS) after securing a second rank in the Civil Services examination.
The late Indu Prakash had served as Deputy High Commissioner and Acting High Commissioner of India in London and as Indian Ambassador in Madrid. He had also held various top diplomat offices abroad before he retired in 1989.
Indu Prakash Singh IFS (extreme left) with former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Image courtesy: Wikipedia
The trend started off by Indu Prakash is still being followed by his fellow villagers.
“In 1952, Indu Prakash became an IFS officer and since then, every family encourages its members to join the elite cadre. In fact, at one time, four brothers got selected to the IAS cadre. One of them, Vinay Kumar Singh, retired as the Chief Secretary of Bihar,” ‘Deccan Chronicle’ quoted a local teacher from the village.
Madho Patti also boasts of having produced senior officials working in World Bank and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
