Visually impaired man crosses legal barriers to crack state civil service exams

Visually impaired Sannyas Behera from Odisha has created rays of hope for the scholars with physical disabilities by getting 220th rank in Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) 2015. A total of 670 candidates were chosen for the top state level jobs among which eight candidates were blind and six were deaf. Earlier, physically challenged candidates were prohibited from sitting for the Odisha civil service examinations. Sannyas challenged this and started his fight against the prohibition in 2006. He filed a Public interest litigation (PIL) in the Odisha High Court in 2011, seeking to lift the prohibition for physically challenged persons. Accepting Sannyas's PIL, the high court later in 2014 allowed physically challenged people to sit in OPSC exams. Sannyas said now he wants to set an example for persons with disabilities and prepare them for Civil Services examinations.