PATNA: In a move to immortalise the academic brilliance and professional uprightness of late alumni Manoj Kumar Srivastava, a 1980 batch Bihar IAS officer, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has instituted "Manoj Kumar Srivastava Memorial Gold Medal" to the topper of MA in Sociology programme.
Bihar-native Srivastava was a darling of the public, whose transfer from Bhojpur in 1988 as DM had sparked a mass public protest. He was known throughout his career for his fast public grievances redressal ability as an administrative officer, who never compromised with his ethics, sincerity and dedication to the development of society.
Though he was an IAS officer, wherever he was posted as SDM and DM, his name was enough to create fear among criminals. According to official sources,the "Manoj Kumar Srivastava Memorial Gold Medal" will be given to the topper in MA sociology from the batch of 2020-22 in JNU.
Srivastava was a student of MA Sociology in JNU from 1979. The memorial award will carry a certificate and a gold medal. The chairperson of CSSS program in JNU will be the nodal person for recommending the name of topper for this award.
Late Srivastava's son Saagar Srivastava expressed gratitude to the JNU and tweeted that he felt proud to share this information about the Medal instituted in the memory and honour of his father. Manoj Kumar Srivastava died in 2020 due to coronavirus at Patna AIIMS, aged 65.
He was also the founder secretary of the Disaster Management Department of Bihar. He was also credited for the facilitation of the world's largest free food distribution during 2007 in Bihar floods under the UNDP Disaster Risk management project.
Srivastava has in his credit also as the most erudite achievement research that he did on naxalism in Bhojpur while serving as DM there. He was also an alumnus of the London School of Economics in addition to being a distinguished fellow of IIM Ahmedabad. He was also known as a running encyclopaedia in the bureaucratic circle and had also studied in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.