Visionaries are ahead of their time
The visit of Chief Minister to a district is always a special event. There is an adequate notice given and a lot of planning goes into deciding the duration of stay, places of visit, projects for laying of foundation, inauguration, etcetera. Efforts are made to bring out a special report for the occasion, highlighting the features of the district and requests for special consideration are naturally added there for special dispensation.
Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy was visiting the district. This time the CM was visiting only for a day. He had programmes in Kolhapur, Achampet and then in Mahabubnagar town. He made it clear that the Collector would be seated next to him in the helicopter and in the car when on road. In the first leg of travel, one Minister accompanied him, and second Minister joined later. In a meeting at Achampet, when the MLA was taking the mic to raise a problem, the CM wanted to know if the Collector had been consulted on the issue. He did not allow that discussion as the Collector was not briefed about the matter. At end of the visit, the CM convened a meeting at the district headquarters and kept the Collector next to him on the dais. The visit of CM empowered the Collector and made him at the same time accountable for the district performance in various programmes.
Every Monday was public grievance day. I took special care, not to travel anywhere on Monday from my ITDA days. I was once informed by Sahadev, the former Chairman of Mahabubnagar municipality, that on Sundays many lodges and choultries would be chock-a- bloc with the petitioners coming from several parts of the district. I was always feeling guilty to go home on Mondays for a quick lunch.
Today I regret that I did not obtain lunch to the office to have some additional time. My revenue assistant, Parvati, was one capable and dedicated officer. She involved a foolproof monitoring platform on NIC computer with help of Ramachander. She also arranged receipts for every petitioner and that empowered them to seek speedy remedial action. The elected representatives were so helpful that even if they came on Monday, they would come in a queue and then not take too much time. As for the ministers, they would avoid coming to the headquarters on Mondays to avoid embarrassments.
Usually 3 to 4 days in a week were available for my tours in the district. Divisional monthly reviews were regularly held with revenue subjects in one session and development items in the second session. The district with distances from one division to another posed challenges. Night halts were there for 3 to 4 nights a month at least.
On one of those trips to Kolhapur, I was returning to Mahabubnagar by mid- afternoon after halt there on previous night. I saw a married lady and an aged male person, waving and stopping my car. My driver stopped and the woman came and sought help to travel in the car to Thadur village. Some calamity seemed to have occurred in the family. The lady narrated this request, sobbing and wiping away her tears. My attender, Nagaiah, felt outraged. He shooed the lady away. I allowed them in the car and I dropped them at Nagar Kurnool as I was going towards Mahabubnagar. My attender was enraged when that lady in the distress came and gave him a crumpled tenner out of gratitude for the ride! Such was the nature of the people. They are simple and so lovable, they do not seek freebies.
Srisailam multipurpose irrigation project had caused havoc to many villages in the district, submerging them under the backwaters. There were priceless monuments that were coming under submergence as well. Some extraordinary work was undertaken by the state archaeology department. When the consultant of World Bank visited that area, I got first-hand experience of visiting the reconstructed monuments at Jatprole village. Every stone was numbered and handpicked while demolishing structure and those were carefully reassembled. The idol of Venugopal Swamy there cast a magic spell on my mind and I can recall the sweet smile of Sri Krishna even now. I was very keen to meet the person who championed this mission of rehabilitating precious heritage.
At a meeting at Hyderabad, I ran into Dr VV Krishna Sastry, Director of Archaeology. He was embarrassed when I expressed my gratitude to him for that work. He then told me that he was equally keen to come to Mahabubnagar to share his experiences of other excavations. A seminar was organised in the new block that came up in Collectorate. Everyone who assembled there on behalf of INTACH and the media was astonished to hear the historicity from all the excavations. Dr Krishna Sastry spoke brilliantly and lamented that many of the natives of Mahabubnagar district were not aware of their rich past. He made a powerful presentation and stated that there were sites in Achampet, Umamaheswaram etc where seals were discovered belonging to Harappa period. So what was seen as a district beset with myriad of challenges had a very rich past! I did not have resources to publicise this discovery and of course the district news gave a lot of prominence to this. Dr Krishna Sastry advised me to visit Alampur and see the splendour of Kudali Sangameswara temple and that rich heritage site that has been reassembled there. I learnt that Alampur was a Shakti Peeth and Jogulamba was the presiding deity in the gracious company of Lord Bala Brahmeshwara Swamy. It is a matter of great satisfaction that the cultural identity of Telugu language was captured by S Kasipandian of 1963 batch. The first Telugu Thalli statue was erected by him as Collector in Mahabubnagar in 1975 and Shankar was the sculptor. I was fascinated that at one time how beautifully this district was a witness to most ancient and contemporary heritage. It seemed N T Rama Rao, the reigning CM, picked up the model from Mahabubnagar and got Telugu Thalli statue installed near the AP Secretariat entrance in Hyderabad. Several places similarly are hosting this statue in present Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states.