Not many had heard of Sukma before its Collector was abducted by Maoists from the teakwood south of Chhattisgarh on April 21. And it didn’t even exist till a few months ago, when it was carved out of Dantewada district, itself known for the infamy of the worst-ever massacre of policemen by Maoists in 2010.
Fewer had heard of the spirited Alex Paul Menon. Now the nation knows about this cheerful young hero out to make a difference. And Menon is not alone; there’s a growing tribe of civil servants, khaki included, leading the change most Indians can believe in.
Meet Thrissur City Police Commissioner P Vijayan, who loves children so much that in 2006 he established an NGO called Nanma (goodness) in Kochi to rescue children arrested over drugs and robbery. Nanma is a mentoring programme to bring such lost children back on track. “If these children are sent to jail they will mingle with criminals,” says Vijayan. “They will become hardened. Released children are sent to their own homes. We have selected a group of prominent persons, including a psychiatrist, as the mentors of these children. Each week these children are sent for consultation.”
The results have been heartening: 98 per cent of the children are doing well in studies, and Nanma has gone on to Kozhikode and Thrissur. Vijayan believes that crime can be fought with education. “Everyone has specific talents. Education must enable a child to identify his skill and receive training for it,” he says.
In neighbouring Karnataka, Darpan Jain, a young IAS officer serving in Dharwad has changed the face of the district by taking up a number of developmental works. A backward and agitation-prone district, Dharwad is a dreaded posting. Jain has risen to the challenge. Among his achievements are a facelift of the Nrupathunga Hills and development of the Dr Gangubai Hangal Gurukul. Such is Jain’s popularity that Dharwad residents want him to stay on for a few years more.
In Dakshin Kannada district, Jain’s IAS brother, Subodh Yadav of the 1999 batch, could keep the flag flying only for seven months as Deputy Commissioner before he was abruptly transferred. Yadav, however, managed to reserve 200 acres for the rehabilitation of members of the Malekudiya tribe, organise a cleanliness drive for Mangalore, and detect service tax evasion worth hundreds of crores.
Another do-gooder babu is Shalini Rajneesh, now Secretary in Department of Personal Affairs and Reforms, in her previous stint as Secretary of Hyderabad Karnataka Development Board for about two years in Gulbarga till November 2011, showed what a people-friendly bureaucracy should be like. Her accessibility made her one of the best known bureaucrats, and her efforts at developing tourism and general infrastructure in Gulbarga as well as her initiative to restore water tanks as Deputy Commissioner of Belgaum will be long remembered.
The change is quiet sometimes. Salma K Fahim, an IAS officer and self-declared introvert who is Project Director for the Karnataka State Aids Prevention Society, is a passionate propagator of women’s empowerment. Fahim seeks to change perceptions about AIDS. Practicality is her strength. “We are not here to regulate sex work but to ensure their welfare,” she says about prostitutes, a focus group of her efforts . “Last year, the prevalence of AIDS in the state was 1.76 per cent while this year, it has come down to 0.67 per cent,” Fahim declares.
Not quite from the same mould is Shivdeep Waman Lande, an IPS officer of the 2006 batch. Currently SP of Bihar’s Araria district of Bihar, he became a pop icon while serving as City SP in Patna. Lande’s 10 months saw all sorts of criminals, from fake cosmetic sellers to the medicine mafia, run into a stronger version of the law. Lande’s drive against eve-teasers added to the fame. His transfer from Patna saw residents take to the streets in protest against the move.
As far as Dabangg policemen go, IPS officer NC Asthana, Inspector General of CoBRA, is leader by default, capability, and sheer genius. Dr Asthana, the leader of the CRPF’s elite battalions is a nuclear physicist by training. He is the author or co-author of 22 highly acclaimed independent books; two edited works; and scores of research papers in various reputed international journals on various subjects ranging from nuclear physics, electronics, terrorism, anti-terrorist operations, military science, popular science, rationalism, myth busting, metaphysics, the science of intelligence, weapon systems, and explosives. Dr Asthana was in Kashmir in the mid-1990s as an intelligence officer when the insurgency was at its peak. Again, when Kashmir was burning in the ‘summer of discontent’ in 2010, it was his firm hand as the IG (Ops) Kashmir that held it together in spite of 1,871 of his men being injured badly in the riots. He was asked by the government to prepare a SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for police forces to deal with riotous mobs—a first of its kind that filled a legal gap existing in the system since 1873. He has the honour of being the only civil servant to draft legislation, thus joining the ranks of Lord Macaulay, J J Macleod and others. His men love him. And so much that they say a shot fired at him would run into thousands seeking to take it instead.
Lande’s inspiration may well have been Manoje Nath, the seniormost IPS officer in Bihar. Nath, known to be upright, has exposed corruption in high places for decades. Early in his career, Nath investigated cases related to cooperative mafia, which involved political heavyweights and at least half-a-dozen IAS officers. Such is his reputation that the Patna High Court has chosen him four times to investigate high-profile cases. But he’s paid the price, being posted out for his ‘indiscretions’ many times, and finally being overlooked for the post of DGP on four occasions. Nath retires on June 30.
Fellow IPS officer, Punjab-born Asra Garg, has more time on his hands. It was soon after his first posting in the caste minefield of Tirunelveli district is that Garg ran into a real caste wall at Uthapuram village in Madurai district. An engineering graduate, Garg believes in being the change — it was because of his unceasing efforts that the upper caste Hindus of the village allowed Dalits in the village temple years.
At 31, Garg has mastered Tamil and understood the state’s caste politics. “People never make fun of me even if I pronounce a word wrongly,” he says. Also to Garg’s credit is a crackdown on money power in elections in Madurai, and a crusade against bonded labour which led to several children reclaiming their lives.
Garg looks up to Madurai City Police Commissioner P Kannappan, the top cop who routinely takes distress calls from members of the public on his personal phone. The 57-year-old officer has earned a name for himself as a people-friendly cop during his 25 years of service. During the 2011 Assembly elections, his courageous work in the bastion of DMK strongman M K Alagiri was acknowledged by the Election Commission, which nominated him for a national award. A former assistant professor at Loyola College, Kannappan believes in a scientific approach to social problems, a feature he incorporated in his work ethic as superintendent of police in 1993 when he eradicated illicit liquor in Karisalkulam village of Ramanathapuram district. His approach, which created alternative livelihood for bootleggers, was replicated in other parts of the district. “Problems can be tackled if the police is truthful,” he says.
For Madurai District Collector U Sagayam, the truth does not need to be sterile. His regular MNC-bashing is no stance; it comes from conviction. As District Revenue Officer of Kanchipuram district in 1999, he took on a powerful MNC by sealing its plant for selling contaminated soft drinks. “The sale of the soft drink was banned throughout the district. It was first time in the world that the products of an MNC were banned,” Sagayam recalls. The commercially successful food courts for farmers, where value-added agricultural produce is sold, are also a Sagayam idea. Other feathers in Sagayam’s cap include an IAS coaching scheme for the differently abled in Madurai, where 20 youth are being trained; the Walking Stick initiative to help the differently abled; and a BPO centre for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. “Lanjam Thavirthu, Nenjam Nimirthu (reject graft, hold your head high),” is Sagayam’s guiding principle.
Sensitivity is what keeps 1980 batch IPS officer Archana Ramasundaram, now Additional DGP (Training), going in her war on human trafficking. She was instrumental in setting up 40 anti-human trafficking units, including three in the railway police, as a nodal officer in Crime Branch CID. “Prompt action can go a long way in prevention,” she says. Delhi-born Ramasundaram went on to enlarge her perspective on the issue during seven years in the CBI and at global meets.
Another civil servant who goes the extra mile is Gagandeep Singh Bedi, whose heroism as District Collector of Cuddalore in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami is folklore in the region. He personally rescued a group of stranded fishermen. “I informed the fire service but they couldn’t reach the spot. So I decided to move myself,” recalls the 1968-born Sikh, now the Secretary for Animal Husbandry. When the chief minister visited the district later, people asked her to make the Tamil-speaking Bedi the permanent collector.
Another legend is Sheela Rani Chunkath, whose 34 years of service defy the popular perception of an insulated bureaucracy. “When the government and people join together, it is a huge force. Together, both of them form a beautiful agent of change,” says the IAS officer. Known for being pro-active in every department she has worked in, this French-speaking bureaucrat’s contributions are nothing short of remarkable, especially her role in the literacy movement (Arivoli Iyakkam) as Collector of Pudukottai district in 1990-92, in eliminating female infanticide as the Health and Family Welfare Secretary, and the part she played in eco-friendly initiatives as the head of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.
In Andhra Pradesh, , one civil servant has gone well beyond the call of duty to raise around `1.31 crore for improving government hostels. Describing it as one of his greatest achievements, Medak District Collector S Suresh Kumar recalls: “The evening I took charge, I paid an informal visit to a government hostel and was taken aback by the sight of boys enjoying smoke, booze and gutka.” The tone had been set for Kumar, whose education was out of a Kerala government hostel. He got to work, getting a survey done and inviting corporate involvement. Fifty-six hostels have been renovated, thousands of students inspired, and Kumar has only just begun.
West Godavari District Collector Dr G Vani Mohan is from the same tribe. As Additional Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, she bagged a national award from the Ministry of Social Justice for her ‘Aasara’ initiative in 2010. The programme was intended to help elderly people in urban areas. Last year, she introduced ‘Abhilasha’, aimed at bringing changes in the areas of health, welfare hostels, veterinary medicine and welfare of the differently abled. “It gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction when I help people around me,” she says.
In Rayaparthi, one civil servant has made a difference with simple handfuls. Vakati Karuna, the Joint Collector of Warangal district, has to her credit the Guppedu Biyyam (a fistful of rice) scheme, under which Self-Help Groups collect a handful of rice once a week from every household in a selected village of Rayaparthi mandal for distribution among the destitute. The scheme has gone on to 23 gram panchayats. “The bureaucracy must ensure that the benefits of the government schemes reach the right people in the right time,” says Karuna.
In the west, Nanded district of Maharashtra is showing the way to a cheating-free education system. Unfair means had long been institutionalised in the schools of this socio-economically backward district. It took young District Collector Shrikar Pardeshi to put a stop to cheating in examinations. His Copymukta Abhiyan has now gone beyond Nanded; it is the model other districts emulate.
The well-being of the public is also a top concern for IAS officer Vikas Kharge, Commissioner for Family Welfare and Director of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Maharashtra. And he wants to do it all without red tape. In 21 days of election duty in Uttar Pradesh, Kharge cleared 360 files with the help of technology. Kharge had realised the potential of e-File, an innovative software developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) at Mussoorie in April 2011. It took Kharge about five months to streamline the process. He’s even done away with signing cheques, with a little help from a leading bank.
Such unusual diligence is echoed in the actions of Kolkata’s first woman Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Damayanti Sen. Petite for a cop, she makes up with pure dynamism. This 1996 batch IPS officer came into her own with her adept handling of the controversial Park Street rape case. Leading a team investigating a crime where insinuations ran wild, Sen worked quickly, retrieving key CCTV footage, and arresting the accused. By the victim’s own admission, Sen was a “tigress”. But the tigress had to pay, being unceremoniously transferred to a backyard post.
Another tiger, this time in civilian clothing, is Balwant Singh, District Collector of Malkangiri. It’s not been easy replacing R Vineel Krishna, kidnapped and later released by Maoists last year. The Naxals rule the district, but haven’t been able to bend Singh. “Vineel sir had laid a solid foundation. I am just building a superstructure on it,” says Singh.
Like Singh, Sidhanta Das, Member-Secretary of Odisha Pollution Control Board, is soft-spoken. Like Singh, his backbone is made of steel. The 1982 batch Forest Service officer wields his baton without fear or favour. In February, the board imposed a staggering Rs 13.77 crore as penalty on the Aditya Birla Group-owned Hindalco Industries for unauthorised sale and disposal of hazardous material. In June last year, Das had ordered closure of 31 sponge iron plants for not adhering to norms. He hasn’t spared PSUs either, holding them to private sector standards. “The message must go to that environment norms cannot be compromised at any cost,” says Das.
With Bureau Inputs