Malkangiri to Kandhamal,collector left mark

Krishna politely declined,saying he was fine with having his lunch on the roadside.

“Had I followed my batchmates in IIT,I would have been working in some multinational companies in San Francisco and California. But I chose IAS to be with the poor,” Krishna is believed to have told Pandian,now district collector of Ganjam.

The conversation may be a little clichéd,but it sums up the attitude of the IIT Chennai graduate,civil engineer Vineel Krishna,who,in the last five years,has developed a knack of landing in the most backward places and making a name for himself through his work.

No wonder then that in the districts where he worked,people observed spontaneous bandhs and rallies declaring their heartfelt support for him. Krishna,now district collector of Malkangiri,was abducted by Maoists on Wednesday.

Born in 1980 in Chander Nagar,a suburb of Hyderabad,Krishna made it to IIT in 2001 and then to IAS (all India 28th rank) in 2005.

His first posting as a probationer was Bangiriposi,a Maoist-affected tribal block of Mayurbhanj district in 2005. Krishna’s wife,Chandana,is also an engineer,but is not working at present.

It was at Bangiriposi that Krishna started a single-window initiative for differently-abled persons.

He made it easy for such persons to collect their disability certificates and other necessary documents under a single roof on a single date at block levels without having to run to officers. “The initiative saved the poor tribals from cumbersome procedures,making them eligible for several government schemes,” said Pandian.

Krishna proved himself again in Kandhamal,where he was posted as sub-collector of the sensitive Baliguda sub-division just before the riots broke out in August 2008 after the killing of VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati.

“He was instrumental in establishing peace between Hindus and Christians after the riots. His work in using the Forest Rights Act to get land for tribals helped Kandhamal in securing the top spot among all the Orissa districts,” said Kandhamal Collector Dr Krishan Kumar.

“He understood the problems of tribals in Kandhamal like nobody else,” said Lambodar Kanhar,a local Kondh leader. It was this understanding that made Krishna stand out among his peers. “He says we are fighting underdevelopment,not Maoists. That’s why he started a single window programme where villagers can air their grievances before nodal officers twice every month,” said Balwant Singh,project director of DRDA,Malkangiri.

Krishna had just inaugurated the electrification of a village on Wednesday when he was abducted. “His positive approach,gentle manners and ability to listen to the woes of poor made him stand out,” said Durga Prasad Tripathy,an NGO worker in Malkangiri.