RANCHI: An IAS officer getting posted as a deputy commissioner (DC) is no big deal, but it surely is if the person happens to be visually impaired. Jharkhand just broke new ground in inclusiveness by promoting Rajesh Kumar Singh to that post in Bokaro.
Just how rare such appointments are can be gauged from the fact that he is the first in the state and second visually impaired officer ever in India to occupy the position of a deputy commissioner. The first such appointment was made in Madhya Pradesh in 2014.
Reacting to the challenging assignment, Rajesh sought to use word play in Hindi to put his point across. The drishtikon (vision) is more important that drishti (eyesight), he emphasised. “Everyone has eyesight but very few know how to use it. Vision comes from experience, your inner being and the way you perceive things.
Therefore, what you hear is more important rather than merely looking at things without understanding them,” said the 2007 batch officer. Vision is a wider term that is more relevant for nation building, he added. Even to get his first posting, Rajesh had to wage a long legal battle against the Centre, which went right up to the Supreme Court. The first posting came in 2011 after the SC ruled in his favour.
Before his Bokaro assignment, Rajesh was posted as Special Secretary in the School Education and Literacy Department. He thanked Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Chief Secretary Jharkhand for taking the bold decision amid the coronavirus pandemic. Bokaro is also due to face a by-election soon, he added.
Though it took a lot of time for getting his first posting as also the DC’s position, Rajesh is not grumpy.
“In the first case there was a sense of success while in the second case there is opportunity. Both are important for me,” he said. He lost eyesight while playing cricket at very early age, but never lost hope. He studied at the JNU before making it to the civil services.