Rachakonda police commissioner mentored civils hopefuls

Hyderabad: Senior Telangana police officials are mentoring civil services hopefuls and helping them to clear the personality test. Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat alone has mentored 300 candidates and 84 of them made it, including toppers from TS, AP and Maharashtra. 

Mahesh Bhagawat, an engineer, started his career working on rural development and soil conservation projects in Maharashtra, and decided that he should take up civil services to serve the public. However, he had to quit civil services training due to financial constraints. 

“I took up a job with Tata Motors in Pune but my heart was at the training centre. While I was working my teachers at the Maharashtra government study circle in Mumbai helped me and with their encouragement and after saving up money for training, I came back and cracked civils,” Mr Bhagawat said. He said he decided to help civil services hopefuls who were unable to go for coaching.

Mr Bhagawat said that he and some others, including his teachers and those who were already in civil services, started mentoring candidates who were shortlisted for personality test. 

A WhatsApp group was created for candidates from TS and AP with around 70 members and a group for Maharashtra candidates with around 260 members, in addition to candidates from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Though Mr Bhagawat had important responsibilities, he spent around four hours daily to guide the hopefuls. “I sacrificed my time to help the candidates and it paid off. Support from my superiors and mentors helped me,” he said. He asked candidates to keep their feet on the ground and the desire to serve burning in their hearts.

Rizwan Bhasha Sheikh (rank 48) from AP said that it was Mr Bhagawat’s guidance that helped him clear the personality test. “The day before my interview he conducted a mock interview over Skype for more than an hour. This helped me,” he said. 

Awhale Manisha Manikrao (rank 833) from Maharashtra says that it was her father’s dream and Bhagawat’s mentoring that encouraged her. “I have never met him but his support was incredible. On the day of my interview he called me at 4 am and spoke for two hours. I owe my success to my parents and Mr Bhagawat,” she said.