On the banks of River Chambal in Madhya Pradesh lies Morena district, the place which till couple of decades ago had become synonymous with dacoits. Some of the most notorious bandits, now of course they have slipped into the pages of history, once ruled Morena. At present, it’s the politicians who call mainly the shots in Morena.
But some reputations, made during decades, rarely gets erased in a few years. When IAS officer Ms Shilpa Gupta took charge of Morena, as its District Magistrate, she immediately realized that this was no ordinary district. For one, the place had the dubious distinction of having the highest number of licensed guns in the country. And, there was a general tendency among people to be a bit unruly; at times, this behavior bordered dangerously on the contempt for the law of the land.
All these factors prompted Ms Gupta to take charge of the district with a firm hand, but with a commitment to change the face of Morena and make living easier for its people. In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, she opened up about her achievements and how she tackled various issues.
A FEARLESS PERSONALITY
Hailing from Haryana, the 2008 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre Ms. Gupta has grown up into a “Dabangg” (fearless) personality. And once she entered Morena, she realized that in order to make her place, she will have to be extremely fair with everyone and deal with everything in a non-biased manner.
“I knew if I wanted to win the people’s trust as a collector, I had to be calm, fair, and fearless. The district is home to various kinds of people and in order to deal with them, I had to let go of any kind of fear in my mind,” she told Indian Masterminds.
And the approach worked! With the passage of time, locals of Morena started trusting her enough to come and lay down their problems in front of her, which she resolved as soon as she could. “They gained trust in me, and whenever I went there, a huge crowd used to gather just to see me. They had this kind of faith that I am the one who would be able to solve their problems. I was happy to receive their support and win their trust” says Ms. Gupta.
ORGANIZING FAIR ELECTIONS
Local elections were a difficult period of time in the district, when rowdy politicians manipulated booths and scared people into voting for them. To tackle the situation, Ms. Gupta decided not to depend on previous years’ arrangements for the upcoming elections. Appointed as the first administrator of Morena Nagar Nigam, she visited all the polling booths and noticed that their location was quite critical.
“Either, the polling booths were set up in a potential candidate’s neighborhood, or in a private school owned by a candidate, which birthed fear into people’s minds as they could not vote freely and thus it became an unfair affair. To do away with this, we rationalized numerous polling stations with the help of State Election Commission by clubbing booths and installing them in locations that were easier to reach and were far away from any candidate’s area of work. These measures enabled people to vote with freedom and without fear” Ms. Gupta told Indian Masterminds.
She also ensured that every polling booth was visited by police who were asked to take feedbacks from corporation, media, and the locals. She herself did a lot of field visits, which kept people in order.
INDUCING RURAL DEVELOPMENT
To enhance and develop rural conditions in the district, Ms. Gupta launched `Panchayat Choupals’ and visited each one herself. She used to plan in advance and let people know when she would be visiting which local panchayat. Local administration used to do field visits beforehand in order to note down the issues pertaining in the district and later on, during her own field visits, she observed how much development had been made there.
She also began a weekly program called ‘Jan Sunvai’, where she picked a few critical cases related to individual beneficiaries and mark them according to their urgency. “I used to personally call the officers in-charge and made them work on their complaints which I monitored regularly. I started taking actions against the officers who were not doing their duties properly, which brought a change in the system” claimed Ms Gupta.
WORK FOR LOCALS
Every department had been given a role to play under the gram panchayat Choupals, which also included a veterinary camp organized by the animal husbandry department as Morena has the highest number of milk-producing cattle in the state. Also, adulteration of milk was another issue that everyone faced. To tackle this, Ms. Gupta made a case under the National Security Act and sent all the culprits behind bars.
Moreover, being fed up of teachers’ absence in government schools, she started taking action against them. She did not suspend them as it would hamper students’ studies but, she stopped their increments if they didn’t come to school. She also gave them proper training.
She has worked as CEO ZP Khargone, DM Khandwa, DM Morena, DM Shivpuri, Additional Project Director RMSA and SSA, and Commissioner MNREGA Madhya Pradesh till now. Presently on maternity leave and taking care of her three-month-old daughter, Ms. Gupta will resume her position as Commissioner of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) from April 2021.
