There is an old saying that ‘If you do good to others, it will come back to you in unexpected ways.’ The quote came true in the case of 2018-batch IAS officer and the youngest collector of Hyderabad, Mr. Anudeep Durishetty. He has earned such respect and unique rewards from the public at such a young age that many bureaucrats could not earn in their whole life. The residents of a tribal village in Bhadradri Kothagudem district have renamed their village after Anudeep Durishetty.
Mr. Durishetty was posted as Additional Collector (Local Bodies) in Bhadradri Kothagudem district in July this year. Here, he was able to solve a problem of a tribal village that was pending for almost 50 years. He not only addressed the problem, but did it in a wonderful manner. A tribal hamlet named Madhya Gumpu in Subbaraopet gram panchayat was struggling with lack of a proper road which connects them to a main road towards the block or mandal. Mr. Durishetty took the initiative in February, acquired land, and completed a road within months. Touched by his noble gesture, villagers also returned the favour and rechristened their village after him, which is now known as Anudeep Gumpu.
THE ROAD
In the last five decades, the villagers of Madhya Gumpu were suffering a lot to reach the main road, especially in times of emergency. The distance of this village from the district headquarter is only 53 km, but still their problem was pending for decades. But after Mr. Durishetty’s initiative, their problem was solved. The foundation for a road was laid in February this year, and now, a gravel road has been completed.
Speaking to Indian Masterminds, Mr. Durishetty said, “I took an initiative to solve this road problem. There was a problem with land acquisition. Actually some farmers did not want to give their land for the road. Their refusal stretch the issue. So, I talked to the farmers, did all the necessary things, and finally completed the land acquisition.”
With Mr. Durishetty’s continuous efforts, Rs. 9.80 lakh, required for laying a CC road from the hamlet to the main road ensuring connectivity to the mandal headquarters, got sanctioned. From the district collector to the local MPDO and Panchayat Raj engineering officials, all worked seriously to complete the road as early as possible.
Village sarpanch V Chinna Rao said that earlier, villagers had to travel through a mud road passing through farm fields. And in rainy seasons, the situation got worse.
“That is why, we decided to rename the hamlet after him. After the road was laid, the gram panchayat and the hamlet residents passed a resolution to rename it as Anudeep Gumpu as a mark of thanksgiving,” he added.
MORE SUCH GESTURES
Renaming villages or roads after bureaucrats is really a great gesture of showing love and respect for their dedicated and sincere work for people’s welfare. Before Mr. Durishetty, there were few more bureaucrats whose work was recognised by common people in such a manner.
A village was named as Asok Nagar in Kadapa district after 1991-batch IAS officer G Ashok Kumar, in the constituency of the then undivided Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, in 2006. The CM himself named the village after the then Collector G Asok Kumar, who had helped in quick development of Kadapa district.
A village in Adilabad district in Telangana too, was named ‘Divyaguda’ after 2010-batch IAS officer Divya Devarajan, who as district collector resolved the age-old tribal conflicts in the district.
A village in Tamil Nadu named Vakaikulam was renamed to Vishnu Nagar after 2012-batch IAS officer V Vishnu who brought basic amenities like electricity and water to this backward village while serving as sub collector.
MORE ABOUT ANUDEEP DURISHETTY
Mr. Anudeep Durishetty hails from Metpally town in Jagatyal in Telangana. He did his schooling from Sri Suryodaya High School and Sri Chaitanya Junior College in his home district. After this, he completed his engineering (B.Tech) in Electronics and Instrumentation from the prestigious BITS Pilani.
He has also worked with one the most prestigious companies in the world, Google, as a software engineer. At the same time, he was also continuing his UPSC preparation. In UPSC CSE-2013, he cracked the civil services exam for the first time and got Indian Revenue Service (IRS). But, he could not crack CSE in 2014 and 2015. In CSE-2017, he not only cracked the exam, but also achieved rank 1! Anthropology was his optional subject for the exam. He was working as an Assistant Commissioner in Customs & Indirect Taxes in Hyderabad at that time.
Recently, when he was appointed as Collector of Hyderabad, it was perhaps the first time that an IAS officer with just five years of service was posted as the Collector of the capital city of Telangana.
