IAS officers from Vidarbha honoured

The Achiever’s Club

IN a glittering ‘Revenue Day’ function held in the Orange City recently, 13 District Collectors from across the State were honoured at the hands of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. They were honoured for unique initiatives conceptualised and implemented in a manner that expanded the ‘set frame’ of being in Government service. Five of these District Collectors were from Vidarbha region. Their ideas and implementation were so innovative that they have been adopted by Revenue Department for implementation across the State. ‘The Hitavada’ Chief Reporter Kartik Lokhande takes a look at their initiatives and how they brought about changes aimed at larger good while working within the system.


Saurabh Rao, District Collector, Nagpur

The young, enthusiastic, and ever-smiling Saurabh Rao was quick enough to note that there was ‘cartel’ formation in tendering/auction of sand ghats in Nagpur district. Previously, litigations followed tendering/auction of sand ghats. He thought of utilising technology to make the process of auction of sand ghats ‘completely transparent’.
For the first time across the State, Rao conducted e-auction of sand ghats. Already, the Government had asked the District Collectors to adopt e-tendering method in allotment of sand ghats. E-auction added another aspect. With successful implementation of e-auction concept, Rao became instrumental in increasing revenue from sand ghat by 225 per cent compared to previous year. Even the High Court appreciated the e-auction process as transparent and the one that curbed cartel formation. Rao was selected to Indian Police Service and he even worked for a while in the capacity of IPS officer in 2002-03, before joining Indian Administrative Service in 2003.

Richa Bagla, Member Secretary, Vidarbha Statutory Development Board 

Bagla was honoured for her excellent performance during her tenure as District Collector, Amravati. The lady officer emphasised on computerisation of records and working. She computerised functioning of despatch section in the Collectorate.
Bagla also computerised ‘Kotwal Book’ in Sub-Division Office. ‘Kotwal Book’ is an important document that has records for around 200 years. Computerisation of this particular record ensured that information was available quickly when required. With this, she achieved expediting office work involving ‘Kotwal Book’ data. In Melghat, which has earned the dubious distinction of being an area with malnourishment in tribals, the officer implemented ‘Dattak Palak Yojana’. With implementation of the novel scheme, Bagla has been credited with improvement in nutritional status of 32 out of total 88 children who were in Grade IV of malnoourishment. Her other initiatives include review of various schemes through video-conferencing with Tehsildar, Sub-Divisional Officer, Block Development Officer; computerised 7/12 extract, desilting of rivers and nullahs.

Abhishek Krishna, District Collector, Gadchiroli 

The young officer took the job of being District Collector of Naxal-affected and backward district of Gadchiroli very seriously. Leading by example, he visited several villages and conducted 321 ‘Samadhan Camps’ under Swarna Jayanti Rajaswa Abhiyan and extended Revenue Department’s services to tribals in remote villages.
Abhishek Krishna, an IAS officer of 2006 batch, thought of providing self-employment avenue to tribals. After giving a deeper thought, he realised that despite being blessed with abundant forest, Gadchiroli did not have any self-employment avenue that provided individual benefits to tribals. He floated the idea of starting a small-scale industry of manufacturing incense sticks. This clicked. Currently, more than 200 women are engaged in manufacturing 7 tonnes of incense sticks daily. These women are from sensitive tehsils of Bhamragarh, Sironcha, and Allapalli. The unit is located at Deulgaon in Chatgaon Forest Range. If his plans work well, manufacturing capacity of the unit will be increased further and it will lead to making the women from Naxal-affected self-reliant.

Shravan Hardikar, CEO, National Rural Livelihoods Mission 

The officer of 2005 batch of IAS, was honoured for unique initiatives implemented during his tenure as District Collector of Yavatmal, the district that has earned dubious distinction of being hotbed of farmers’ suicides. He was Yavatmal Collector from June 2011 to June 2012 when he was transferred to Navi Mumbai as Chief Executive Officer of National Rural Livelihoods Mission.
Hardikar was the first in the State to introduce e-tendering method for allotment of sand ghats. In 2011-12, sand ghats had fetched Rs 6.07 crore. The next year, when he implemented e-tendering method, 107 sand ghats fetched revenue of Rs 6.97 crore for the Government. Implementation of e-tendering involved sensible handling and convincing of bidders. Impressed by the result, Revenue Department decided to implement e-tendering for sand ghats across the State from the year 2012-13. Accordingly, it is being followed across the State now. E-tendering made the process of sand ghats allotment transparent.

Dr Anup Yadav, Additional Commissioner (Special), Pune Municipal Corporation 

A post-graduate in Chemistry, Anup Yadav completed LL.B. also. An IAS officer of 2002 batch, Yadav believed that administration should work to satisfaction of people. District Collector is face of the Government at district level, he believed during his tenure as Wardha Collector.
Yadav came out with the idea of organising special camps on first and third Friday every month at the level of Revenue Circle, and redress grievances of people in presence of officers from Revenue, Land Records, Agriculture, power distribution utility. He aptly named the camps as ‘Samadhan Shibir’. Apart from making the administration reach out to people, he took several other novel steps. He promoted plantation at wider scale. During his tenure, 26 lakh saplings were planted in Wardha district. Besides, many developmental initiatives were implemented for Pardhi community with a population of 3,569. To prevent pilferage of subsidised kerosene, he introduced tanker-tracking system. Revenue Department took note of ‘Samadhan’ camps. At present, several districts are conducting such camps under Swarna Jayanti Rajaswa Abhiyan.