Young Kashmiri officer offers free video lectures to needy civil service aspirants

BASHARAT RASHID

Kashmir: A young Kashmiri officer from Central Kashmir’s Budgam district has taken an impressive initiative by collecting video lectures for the poor and needy students who are aspiring to qualify civil services.

Irfan Rashid, Public Relations Officer (PRO), Power System Operations Corporation under Union Ministry of Power, is a resident of Charari Shareef town in Budgam district, who collected the video lectures of UPSC and State civil service competitive examinations from the cities like Delhi and Mumbai and is offering them free of cost to the needy students.

With his hard work and dedication, the young officer has made tireless efforts to start this unique initiative just to uplift the poor and needy students, who are desirous to appear and qualify the competitive exams.

Talking to this Journalist, Irfan Rashid has requested all the NGOs, members of civil society, educational institutions, social activists and other responsible persons to take the video lectures from him and help it percolate to the remotest corners.

“I had initially asked a group of few students to come to me personally, just to collect the informative videos. Soon after that, my post was shared in few student groups, following which i continued to receive many messages from students, who asked me to share the video lectures with them, which was impossible for me to do single-handedly,” Irfan said.

He further said that he requested interested parties to help the students in this regard, and accordingly one Srinagar based NGO, as per him, came forward to raise his mission.

“Now, i want NGOs or other interested people from each and every district and tehsil headquarters of Kashmir to come forward and help all the needy students,” Irfan added.

The post of Irfan Rashid on social media earlier read that “lack of access to resources should never become a cause for your failure. The majority of the aspirants can’t afford Rs 1.5 lakhs for General Studies coaching, Rs 50,000 for optional, Rs 2 lakhs for rent & food for a year in Delhi.
As part of #GiveBackToSociety , I have collected all the above classes’ lectures (200GB) from many friends in Delhi/Mumbai and am ready to share them with the NEEDY students who can’t afford Rs 4 lakhs for UPSC/IAS coaching in Delhi.”

“The video lectures include: GENERAL STUDIES PAPER 1 (Ancient History, Medieval History, Modern History, Art and Culture, Post Independence History, World History, Society, Indian geography, World Geography); GS Paper 2 (Polity, Constitution, Governance, Social Justice, International Relations); GS Paper 3 (Economy, Agriculture, Science, Technology, Environment, Disaster Management, Internal Security); GS Paper 4 (Ethics, Integrity, Aptitude); OPTIONALS SOCIOLOGY and ANTHROPOLOGY PAPER 1 & PAPER 2; ESSAY,” the post on social media continued.

In a statement, Irfan asked all the desirous students to collect it and share it further with other students in their respective villages, so that it reaches every needy student in every corner of the Kashmir.

He said that “those who want to take it from him and further share with students can message on his Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PROIrfanRashid/ or Twitter https://twitter.com/PROIrfanRashid”

It’s pertinent to mention here that Irfan has formerly worked as a journalist, and is currently working as Public Relations Officers in Power System Operations Corporation under Union Ministry of Power after qualifying UGC JRF.