In 2018,Mr. Anudeep Durishetty, a resident of Telangana, got to know that he has topped UPSC-2017 exam. It was his fifth attempt and he had scored AIR 1. He had graduated from the country’s prestigious Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, had left his job at Google for preparing for CSE.
Now almost three years later, Mr. Durishetty is in news again for setting an example by preferring government hospitals when he can afford the best of the super specialty private hospitals. He hails from Metpally town in Jagtial district of Telangana, which is his cadre as well.
GETS WIFE’S DELIVERY DONE IN GOVT HOSPTAL
Mr. Durishetty’s wife Madhavi underwent a C-section operation in a government hospital and gave birth to a baby boy. M. Ramakrishnan, Deputy Superintendent of the district hospital of Bhadrachalam, a temple town on the border of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, told the media that “this initiative of district collector will reinvigorate the trust of the general public in government hospitals. Also, his decision will always be taken as an example. If the Collector wanted, he could have taken his wife to a big private hospital, but he chose a government hospital. He showed everyone that even our government hospitals are no less than private hospitals. Not only this, even before getting his wife admitted, he used to come to us for regular checkups.”
At the same time, Telangana’s finance minister, Harish Rao, who was recently allotted the Medical and Health Department, also expressed happiness over this decision of the Collector. He wrote on social media: “Heartfelt congratulations to Anudeep and his wife. I hope both mother and baby are fine. It makes me very proud to see how the medical infrastructure of the state has proved to be the first choice of the people under the leadership of CM KCR Guru.”
OTHER OFFICERS WHO CHOSE GOVT INSTITUTIONS
Earlier also, many officers of the Administrative Service had given out social messages while taking such steps. Recently, Additional District Collector of Khammam district of Telangana, Ms. Sneha Latha Mogili also set an example for the people by giving birth to a baby girl in a government hospital. At that time, too,her decision was praised by people from all over the country.
In an exclusive conversation with Indian masterminds, the IAS officer had said, “I was given a very warm welcome and taken care of very well at the hospital by nurses and doctors. The special thing is that there was a very good team of doctors which included three gynecologists, anesthesiologists and pediatricians. A team of doctors from different departments was there, which is not so in a private setup.”
Similarly, Mr. Praveen Singh, an IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh, also got his wife’s delivery done in the district hospital’s maternity home. Mr. Singh was posted in the office of the zila panchayat in Bhind at that time.
DELIBERATE ACTIONS TO INFLUENCE PUBLIC
It is worth noting that many bureaucrats posted in different parts of the country have their own methods to change the mindset of the common people. There are many instances where IAS officers have deliberately done many things to send a strong message to society. Many of them have also enrolled their children in anganwadi schools. The message they want to send out is,even government primary schools are no less than private schools.
Ms. Swati Bhadoria, 2012-batch IAS officer and DM of Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, set an example by getting her son Abhyudaya admitted to an anganwadi school. Mr. Avnish Sharma, a 2009-batch IAS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre, sent his daughter to anganwadi for the first six months and then admitted her in a government school.
Another example is of 2012-batch officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre,Mr. Pankaj Jain, who sent his daughter Pankhuri to an anganwadi school. Mr. Raj Yadav, District Collector of East Sikkim and a 2009-batch IAS officer, admitted his children to a government school.
In a conversation with Indian Masterminds, he said, “I sent my kids to private school for the first six months, but I found them under a lot of mental pressure. Then I shifted them to a government school in Sikkim where not only are they performing well academically but are also developing interest in extra-curricular activities.”
