'Wrote exam with IV tubes', Telangana UPSC topper Dhatri Reddy elated at 46th rank

Hyderabad: It was right before the night of her third attempt at the Union Public Service Commission's civil studies examinations that Dhatri caught a fever. In the next three days when she sat for her exams, she was accompanied by viral fever and an IV tube syringe.

IPS P Dhatri Reddy, however, cleared the 2019 civil services examination with an all India rank of 46, the highest in both Telugu speaking states.

Speaking to Newsmeter about the achievement, she says,"It was a childhood dream to get into the services, especially the Indian Police Service. I was motivated by personalities like that of Kiran Bedi." The officer further adds that she is elated to have achieved a double-digit rank and cleared the Indian Administrative Services.

While she had previously cleared the 2018 exams, she was not sure which service she would be placed into as her rank was 233. However, she was appointed as an IPS officer and transferred to Telangana in 2019. She has been born and raised in Hyderabad and is currently a resident of LB Nagar.

The 26-year-old is a graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. After completing her course, she joined Duestche Bank as an investment banker. "I forgot about all my dreams in college and lost faith that the system can ever be changed," she says.

While she was working, she started an NGO, Feed India, through which she was able to help out citizens. Dhatri adds that this pushed her into helping citizens. "I soon realized that in order to make a change in the system, we will have to work from within."

Dhatri then quit her banker job and started preparing for the examinations. Having studied at home, she sourced several academic materials all on her own. "All my strategies, notes, and everything I built from scratch has been uploaded to a blog to help other people do the same," she adds.

Dhatri says that while everyone can see the loopholes in the system, people do not come forward to address them. She feels that joining government services is "a sure shot way" of making a large scale impact.

While Dhatri is yet to finalise on her decision to join in IAS, she says that she looks forward to the journey.

"My phase-I IPS training took place at the National Police Academy, and it was a wonderful experience," she says, further adding that in the coming month, she will be appointed as the Additional Commissioner of Police, Khammam district.