Year End Special: I am definitely happy to have done my bit

Cheranmahadevi Sub-Collector, Vishnu.V had a splendid year with a hamlet named after him as a token of gratitude for his efforts in bringing water, power supply and other projects for the villagers.

I had said it back then, and I want to say it again - it was not really the toughest assignment I have faced during my stint as the Sub Collector. The lack of basic of amenities like electricity and water was brought to my notice by the villagers during my routine inspection in the nearby areas. The villagers requested that I visit their hamlet. The two-decade-old issue of basic minimum amenities remained unsolved due to a pending land dispute.  My efforts were to find a solution to the root cause of the land dispute. Once this was identified, a team of officials were deputed for resurvey. A few vested interests were preventing the process and that is when my team realised that the land dispute was artificially created to deny the villagers the basic amenities. Months after the hamlet was named Vishnu Nagar, a few of my colleagues in service had tweeted this, from which the media picked it up, especially the press in Kerala after learning about my Kerala roots.

Though this is one issue which I could solve satisfactorily, many more are in the pipeline which needs to be brought to its logical finality. I am definitely happy to have done my bit but this would have been done by any committed IAS Sub Collector had it reached their level.

There are, however, tougher projects like the one I have been working on with the ‘Narikuravars’— a nomadic gypsy community in Tamil Nadu. These are people who make and sell Paasi mala (bead jewellery) in temples and bus stands. We have given them free land and housing along with basic amenities and now we are providing them permanent livelihood. A specialised modern jewellery making training has been provided to the womenfolk by forming self-help groups. These women are highly skillful. Show them any design and they could replicate it in minutes, in high quality. The idea is to make them self-reliant entrepreneurs.

I hail from Kochi, but right now I am enjoying this challenging and highly satisfying rural stint.

Taking risks

After completing his engineering from NIT Tiruchirappalli, Vishnu worked for a while as a Risk Analyst at Aon Corporation, Chicago. He was selected for the Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship (PMRDF) to work in Naxal affected districts. In the mean time, he cleared the civil service examination with all India rank 34.