A Peoples’ Officer
- Pallavi Priya
- Published on 30 Apr 2021, 4:52 pm IST
- 4 minutes read
Highlights
Popular with the tribals of her district, the 2013 batch IPS officer Ms. Priyanka Meena cracked the UPSC with just a few days of preparations. But that’s just one of her several achievements.
- IPS officer Priyanka Meena giving blanket to a needy
She is a firm officer on field, but with a soft heart. She knows how to win people’s trust and be there for them. This is the reason what made her successful in controlling the crime rate of a district in Jharkhand which was going through a turmoil after the communal violence. Posted as the SP of Lohardaga, Jharkhand Ms. Priyanka Meena has become favourite of everyone in just a year of her posting. The noteworthy thing here is that she is from Maharashtra cadre and has been deputed here. Before coming to Lohardaga, she had no experience of working in Jharkhand and this place & challenges here were alien for her.
In conversation with Indian Masterminds, she opened up about her journey in cracking IPS and learnings till now.
Cracked the Prelims after Seven Days of Preparation
The story of Ms. Meena going for the civil services exam is quite interesting. While many of the aspirants take months or years for the focused preparation for the UPSC, she cracked it in a matter of seven days. Talking about this, she said, “I hail for Rajasthan and people there are still not very enthusiastic about girls getting proper education or even having a career. However, both my parents wanted a bright future for me and pushed me towards studies. When I completed my graduation, my father asked me to appear for the UPSC exam. Only 2-3 weeks were left for the exam. One of my cousins, who was preparing for four years suggested not to hurry through it but prepare first. My father was sure about me so I decided to give an attempt. I had already lost many days in decision making and then finding out the syllabus. All I was left with just a week for preparation”. Related Stories
Ms Meena decided to trust her school education and she just focused on C-SAT practice book. She solved the book twice and then went for the exam. The result was shocking to her, to say the least. Although her GS paper didn’t go well but with the second paper she managed to get much more than the cut-off.
For the Mains exam, the story was repeated. Since everyone told her that no one can crack it with such a short preparation time, she got de-motivated and didn’t even see the result. She started preparing for the next attempt, when a teacher told her to check her result as it will help her to know the mistakes she did. Then she got to know that she has been selected for the Mains! Again, she had limited time but with smart choices she cracked the exam in 2013 at the age of 21.
“It looks like I cracked it with limited preparation, but it’s not like this. Actually, it was my studies during my school & college that helped me a lot. Anyone who have studied sincerely and is updated with daily news can crack this exam”, she said.
The best SP
This year, a magazine declared Ms Meena as one of the 50 best IPS officers in India. Her recent achievement includes her Lohardaga district peaceful during the period of strife. Ms. Meena says that when she was posted here, many of her senior officials were not too sure about how much she would succeed in the region. A few of them even suggested putting up a male officer in the district instead of her. However, with her hard work and spectacular results, she shattered all the doubts. She not only brought down the crime rate in the district, she also managed to secure a healthy detention rate of 90 percent for most crimes. For this she and her team deserve all the praise as they have bridged the gap between police and the tribes that dominates the area.
This is first part of Ms Meena’s inspiring story. In our conluding part, we will focus on her working style and how she managed to control the communal crisis as well as the covid-19 situation in her district.
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