Iva (top) and Tanvi

Ranchi, May 7: All India UPSC exam topper among women, Iva Sahay, wants to serve in the Rajasthan cadre. Her second choice is Gujarat.

Sixth rank holder Tanvi Sundriyal’s first preference is Uttarakhand cadre.

Both girls hail from Jharkhand, but they do not want to serve in their home state.

Iva’s says she opted for Rajasthan for its history and colour. Tanvi wants to go back to her roots, in Uttarakhand.

But unofficially, family members of both women admit the reasons are more complex. Factors ranging from political uncertainty to deep-rooted corruption in the bureaucracy as well as the prevailing Naxalite menace in Jharkhand have compelled them to opt for other states.

“We think it’s really difficult for a good and honest administrator to serve in states like Jharkhand, Bihar and UP. But it’s a fact that there is more scope and challenge working in a beautiful state like Jharkhand that has somehow gone awry,” said Iva’s father Vijay Shankar Sahay from Allahabad.

Sahay’s family hails from one of the oldest localities of the state capital, Hindpirhi. Sahay shifted to Allahabad in 1993 where he is now head of department of anthropology in Allahabad University. Before his stint in UP, Sahay taught in Ranchi University.

Iva plans to come to Ranchi on May 12 to meet her uncles Vibhuti Shankar Sahay (a Jharkhand High Court lawyer) and Ravi Shankar Sahay (a history teacher in St. Xavier’s College).

“I was born and brought up in Ranchi. But I wanted to move out from the place,” Iva told The Telegraph.

Similar is the case with Tanvi. Her family settled in Ranchi way back in the 1980s. Her father, Dr Anil Kumar is the chief medical officer with a Ranchi based hospital run by Mecon while her mother Sudesh Lata Sundriyal is a senior manager with Punjab National Bank.

“I opted for Uttarakhand as I wanted to serve the state where my root is,” Tanvi said.

Tanvi studied all through in Ranchi, till 2006. She passed out from BIT, Mesra that year and moved to Delhi to pursue law and simultaneously prepare for UPSC. However, Iva studied in Loreto Convent till the primary level before moving to Allahabad to complete her graduation and then did her postgraduation from JNU.

This year, for the first time, UPSC has allowed aspirants who appeared for the main examinations to opt for the state and the service of their choice.

A senior IAS officer of the 1995 batch serving in Jharkhand said he would have not have been if there existed any option for preference. “Corruption is everywhere. But here it is open and is destroying the mechanism of effective administration and time bound results,” the official said.

Interestingly, one of the four probationer IAS officers presently working in Jharkhand has applied for change of cadre and has got clearance to join Madhya Pradesh. The officer in question belongs to Deoghar.