Role model for Young IAS officers: Karnataka cadre IAS Dr. SM Jamdar – a young man sharing pride of place with Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, and/or Babasaheb Ambedkar in many rural homes of the Bijapur Lok Sabha Constituency

Gustakhi Maaf Haryana – Pawan Kumar Bansal

By our enlightened reader, Natrajan Bala Bhaskar, retired IAS (Haryana)

My heroes in the Civil Services of India are not the high-fliers who eventually find their way into international organisations, nor those who enjoy playing the whistle- (or trumpet-) blowing martyrs on national television. They remain largely unknown because they abide by the Civil Service Code and ethics—choosing to remain faceless while delivering work of lasting impact.

At the top of my list is Dr. S. M. Jamdar, whom I have never personally met. During the Parliamentary elections of 2004, when I was posted as an Election Observer in Bijapur, Karnataka, I had occasion to visit several polling booths in the rural areas of the Bijapur constituency. What intrigued me was the presence, in many rural homes, of a photograph of an unfamiliar young man displayed with pride—alongside those of the Mahatma, Netaji, Nehru, and/or Babasaheb.

I was informed that the photograph was of S. M. Jamdar, IAS, who had been in charge of the Resettlement and Rehabilitation of people displaced by the Upper Krishna Project (UKP) for a continuous period of eleven years. The UKP is comparable in scale to the Narmada Sardar Sarovar Project. I am certain many of you may never have heard of the UKP—I hadn’t either—though the Narmada project has been discussed ad nauseam.

This post is not about whether large dams are environmentally desirable or not. It is about the way of the administrator—to accomplish the work entrusted to him with minimal fuss and maximum efficiency. That the very people who were displaced came to adore the officer responsible for implementing the project is, in my view, the highest recognition a civil servant can ever receive.

khabre junction