Dr Kottangada Pemmaiah, a doctor working at the Gonikoppal government hospital, has secured the 247th rank in the civil services examination conducted by the UPSC.
What is special about this 26-year-old doctor is the fact that he had his schooling throughout in Kodagu – primary education at St. Mary’s School, Kutta, high school at Lion’s School, Gonikoppal and PU from St. Anne’s Junior College, Virajpet.
Son of the late Kottangada Devaiah and Viju, of Balliamundur village near Ponnampet, Dr Pemmaiah completed his MBBS from the M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru.
On what prompted him to take the civil services examination, Dr Pemmaiah told the news portal www.www.coorgnews.in: “There is more scope for serving a large number of people as a civil servant.”
Dr Pemmaiah has given his preference for Karnataka cadre followed by Telangana, though he is not averse to serving in any of the backward regions.
A resident of Gonikoppal, Dr Pemmaiah’s sister Shilpika is also studying medicine.
EDITORIAL: Dr Pemmaiah has demonstrated that someone studying at a rural area like Kodagu also can crack the civil services examination.
Though educationally Kodagu had remained a backward region, the starting of several good schools across the district in the recent years, has created the potential for the district to emerge as a strong education hub like the neighbouring districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada. There is need for starting more professional colleges in Kodagu.