CHENNAI: Having spent about two-and-a-half decades in public service in various capacities, senior IAS officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi remains the Tamil Nadu government’s go-to man whenever the State is afflicted with crisis.
He is now burning the midnight oil in Thoothukudi following the violence over the Sterlite issue, having been entrusted with the task of taking people into confidence, building bridges between angry protesters and the administration and bringing back normalcy. Within hours of getting a call from the top, Bedi, serving as Principal secretary, Agriculture, packed up for a fresh round of crisis tackling assignment in Thoothukudi along with his senior colleague PWC Davidar.
The rich experience he gained on the field, particularly in Cuddalore district, will help him execute the task with ease and elan. The 1993-batch IAS officer hailing from far-off Punjab strained every nerve in 2004 when Tsunami struck Cuddalore.
He led from the front to monitor the rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures, which earned him laurels from many quarters. The top brass turned to him in 2015 as the furious northeast monsoon struck. He was at it again when cyclones ‘Vardah’ and ‘Ockhi’ hit the State in 2016 and 2017.“We are now concentrating on defusing the situation and restore normalcy soon,” the officer says.