By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Kandhamal, the erstwhile Phulabani was burning in 2008 following the murder of Hindu seer Swami Laxmananda Saraswati at his Jalespata Ashram when Dr Krishan Kumar, the present Odisha Works Secretary and Chief of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration, Chairman, Puri-Konark Development Authority, was serving as Collector , sitting IGP Safeen K Ahamed was shifted and now IGP S Praveen Kumar was posted then as Kandhamal SP.
Following the riots, Kandhamal hits the headlines while Dr Kumar, an IAS officer of 2002 batch, hailing from Haryana’s Rohatak, tried his best to control the riots as District Collector.
Reacting to a tweet of senior scribe, Soumiyajit Patnaik, Dr Kumar recollected the past and hailed Kandhamal a factory of learning. Dr Kumar also hoped that the new Medical College and Hospital , construction work of which was reviewed by Chief Secretary Suresh Mohapatra and 5T Secretary VK Pandian, will have an impact on improvement in public health.
“Thank you Soumyajit for bringing the nostalgia back. Kandhamal has been a very learning and enriching experience. Now district will have a medical college and hospital of its own under @MoSarkar5T . It will have an impact on improvement in public health in days to come,” Krishan Kumar tweeted @drkrishan2002.
It may be noted here that the able IAS officer Dr Kumar had then helped tribals regain land and overhauled the district administration to pacify the local resistance. With 78 per cent of its population below the poverty line, Kandhamal is usually in the limelight for the wrong reasons, be it backwardness or communal riots.
But within two years of Krishan Kumar taking over as Collector, the district had left its bleak past behind to become the No-1 to implementer of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, that helped tribals regain their lost lands. The IAS Officer’s achievements also include helping the district bag the top position for successfully implementing the National Rural Health Mission. What’s more, Kandhamal was second nationwide in implementation of MNREGA during his tenure as District Collector.
Thanks to his efforts, Kandhamal now have a government polytechnic, a B.Ed college, a nursing school, while the Rural Self Employment Training Institute . Kumar had also initiated steps to set up a driving training school with a target of producing 500 drivers a year during his tenure.
