From Journalist to Civil Servant

Journalist turned IAS officer Roshni Aparanji Korati believes that in issue should be looked at both as a critic and a problem-solver, to achieve best possible results.

Media is widely known as the fourth pillar of democracy, and for a reason. It makes people aware about the political and social events, thereby helpling them in shaping their opinions on important affairs of the nation. Its role in keepinga check on the government can’t be denied. So, one can say that media plays a crucial role in administration too. And what could be better than an civil servant who has been well trained in journalism?

Ms. Korati is currently the DC of Jorhat Assam

Here we are talking about one of the finest IAS officers of our country, Ms. Roshni AparanjiKorati. A 2011-batch officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, she is currently posted as the DC of Jorhat, Assam. In a decade of her tenure, she has proved herself as an able administrator by bagging several awards of excellence in Public Administration.

In conversation with Indian Masterminds, Ms Roshni talked about her interesting journey from journalism to UPSC.

Journalism helps in looking at the problems

Hailing from Vishakhapatnam, Ms. Korati did her graduation in Bio-technology. She always wanted a meaningful profession, so for her masters she chose Journalism. She is a gold medalist in masters of journalism & mass communication. In the course of her study, she realized that with journalism she can only point out the problems. “It is important to highlight the problems but it is more important to work for a change on grassroot level and look for solution too. With this realization, I decided to go for civil services, because it gives you the opportunity to work for the people. I really believe that my training as a journalist has helped me in my work. There is a different way of how normal people and journalist see things. I can now look at the problems and work to solve. It has given me perspective”, said Ms. Korati.

Making Jorhat the cleanest city in Northeast

There is no question about the efficiency of Ms. Korati as the officer on field. From the year 2017 to 2020, she has consecutively won the awards for best administration in both state & center level.

Currently the DC of Jorhat, she has also been posted as the Additional ADM and SDM in the same district. She believes in taking the community and administration side by side for better results. She is also the recipient of Chief Minister’s award for excellence in Public Administration as the ADM of Titabar in Jorhat. During her posting, she took the help of SHGs women and started the solid-waste management center. She was presented the award in 2017 when she took charge of Dheemaji as the DC.

She replicated the same feat in the urban area of Jorhat as the DC. A solid waste management plant has been started under her leadership. But before that, her work with SHGs in the urban for the segregation of waste helped Jorhat to become the cleanest city in Northeast in 2020, while the country was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Houses and jobs for the poor

Ms. Korati work as an administrator has been recognised at both State and Central level

Before Jorhat, Ms. Korati was posted in Dhemaji- which is a flood prone area of Assam. There she worked hard for the implementation of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gramin Kaushal Yojna (DDUGKY) and was honoured with Prime Minister’s award Award for Excellence in Public Administration. She was the only woman officer to receive this award in 2018. Talking about it, she said, “It is a remote area and back then there was no bridge to reach it. So, the villagers were very apprehensive in going outside for better job opportunities. Under the DDUGKY, the students from villages are selected for skill development training outside the region. It was easy to convince the students but parents were too terrified to send them away. So, again we took help of SHGs under the National Rural livelihood mission and organized various sittings with the mothers. Obviously, they were not agreeable in the beginning, and it required a lot of convincing. Now, many students have been placed in various cities like Bangalore, Delhi which has helped the family to be more positive about the program”.

Ms Korati also worked hard to help the people build their houses. As Dhemaji is a flood prone area, so normal house under the Prime Minister AwasYojna would never be successful here. Keeping this in mind, the government had approve the design of stilt bases houses called Sang-Ghar for the area. It was due to her efforts that people in this area have been benefitted by houses of their requirement. She was given the National Award for best implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(Grameen).