Samirul Islam recalls the times he used to roll beedis along with his parents in their two-room hut to meet his school expenses. The 26-year-old is now on a roll in the Bengal civil services exam.

Having first cleared the West Bengal Civil Service in 2014 as a Group C officer, Samirul has cracked the top level of the test to rank 14th and achieved a target he had set for himself in extreme poverty.

Samirul, the oldest of seven siblings from Yadavnagar in Murshidabad’s Shamserganj, will be posted as a block development officer, an A category service.

He is currently serving as a revenue officer in the land department at Chopra in North Dinajpur. “Our family had meagre income, so I had to work to support my parents,” said Samirul.

Villagers said his parents, Tasiruddin Sheikh and Jahanara Bibi, often could not pay for their children’s education. The family lived in a two-room mud hut, which Islam got reconstructed last year with his salary.

“I worked hard to make it so far… I rolled beedis. I gave tuitions. I wanted to keep progressing. The UPSC exam is my next goal, for which I will start preparing. I am grateful to my father for supporting me with whatever he could,” said Samirul.

Until Class X, Samirul attended the village school in Shamshergunj. In 2008, he passed Madhyamik with 75.75 per cent. Later, the Rahamate Mission School in North 24-Parganas’ Berachampa offered him scholarship in Classes XI and XII.

In 2010, Samirul passed HS with 70.5 per cent in the arts stream from the school Berachampa and completed English honours with 61 per cent in 2013 from Sahibulla City College in Berachampa.

In 2016, Samirul got married to Amina Firdousi, a girl from the district who has a Master’s degree.

Samirul’s father Tasiruddin said the family was “very happy” with his son’s accomplishments.