Do-gooder ZP officer, an icon among tribals of Chamarajanagar

Mysuru: Forty two- year- old  IAS officer Dr Harish Kumar K is  an icon among the tribals of the 149 hamlets of Chamarajnagar, who are deeply grateful to him for trying to better their lot through his "Haadi Vasthavya" programme that began three months ago Inspired by the "Grama Vasthavya" programme of Chief Minister, H D Kumarswamy, Dr Harish Kumar, who is CEO of the Zilla Panchayat of Chamarajnagar district, visits the tribals in their hamlets and stays overnight to hear their problems with his team of officials. He has already covered the Muthugadagadde tribal hamlet near BR Hills, the Mudduru colony in Gundlupet taluk and Alambady near Gopinatham in the district.

But this is only one of his many initiatives to directly reach out to people. On Saturday it was time for "Mussanje Maathu", an evening of interaction between the CEO and the people of Siddaiahnapura Dalit colony in Aalaththur, Gundlupet taluk.  Besides giving a patient listening to the people on their lack of infrastructure facilities, the officer took note of their problems with claiming government benefits under various welfare programmes meant for them.  
Dr Harish Kumar also holds  "Chinthana Manthana," a programme for  better coordination through informal talks among zilla panchayat, taluk panchayat and gram panchyat members and government officers in every  constituency twice a month. Even better, he has already touched the target of 1,72,000 toilets and made Chamarajnagar district free of open defecation under the Swachch Bharath scheme in March.

A 2012 batch IAS topper, Dr Harish, who is popular among people for his novel initiatives in Chamarajnagar district, believes that civil service offers the best platform to serve them. Born in Karkala in Udupi district, he has a string of qualifications attached to his name like an MSc in Organic Chemistry, M.Phil and Phd.  Although he served as a lecturer for a while, he later passed the KAS exam in 2006 and topped the IAS exam in 2012.