With a cotton cloth shielding his face from sunlight and a face and a daati (kind of farming equipment) in hand, a person can be seen tending the soil in the Deputy Commissioner’s residence in Sangrur district of Punjab. At first blush, people may size him upon him as the caretaker of sorts, but no; he is the Deputy Commissioner himself.
And this is his daily ritual. This is his way of hugging his cultural roots and not getting swayed by the worldly success.
The officer in focus is the DC of Sangrur in Punjab, Mr. Ramvir Singh, who serves as a perfect example for a person who is still connected to his roots despite being successful in his professional life. While speaking to Indian Masterminds, he said “People can reach heights by becoming successful in life, but one can only save the heritage and maintain its existence by sticking to the roots they come up from.”
NOT FORGETTING HIS ROOTS
Mr. Ramvir Singh was born in Jhajjar district of Haryana. He came up from a farmer’s family where his father used to work in a government job. Later after retirement, his father continued doing farming activities with the rest of the family.
Mr. Singh said, “While growing up during my school days and childhood I used to support my family in farming activities and used to take out time to help them in every way possible.”
Mr. Singh was a brilliant student right from the beginning as he became the school topper in the eight-standard in Haryana board. He further completed his graduation with Honors and MA in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. He also did MPhil in Security Relations before getting into civil services in 2007.
Mr. Singh not only cleared the UPSC exam in 2007, as he got selected in the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), but in 2009 too when he finally cleared the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He was then allotted the Punjab cadre.
A FARMER BY HEART
Visitors at the local residence of DC Sangrur often get surprised by seeing the officer working in the field like a farmer. Mr. Ramvir Singh’s daily work routine starts with yoga and a half an hour of farming which is continued after he comes back from the office in the evening. During the process he engage in harvesting wheat, cutting grass, milking the cows and taking updates on the crops he planted in his local residence.
Mr. Singh said, “I have a keen interest in farming and by seeing people like the Chief Minister and several senior officers engaging in farming activities, it also motivates me to be connected to my roots. Also, Punjab and Haryana are agriculture-based economies so in our day-to-day work we get on many things related to agriculture and try to improvise on it. Apart from this, it is also a message for the youth who, while busy building their future, forget about their mother land.”
Mr. Singh is also setting an example by cultivating wheat through organic farming, as this is being done for the first time in the Deputy Commissioner residence in Sangrur.
AGRICULTURAL INITIATIVES
During the previous postings, Mr. Singh had taken several proactive steps related to dairy farming. In his current posting, he is now teaching farmers various techniques which would help them in saving water and cutting other expenditures.
In a program organized by the Agriculture Department on the occasion of Farm Day, Mr. Singh expressed his views on the adoption of direct sowing technique of paddy, which he believed would help farmers in saving water and reducing their input prices.To make the farmers aware of the new farming techniques, he also drove a tractor himself to demonstrate the technique of the direct sowing of rice technique.
He said that while direct sowing saves 15 to 20 percent of water, the cost of farming for paddy by this matter gets reduced by Rs. 2500 to 3000 per acre.
