When IAS officer A Sri Devasena took charge as the District Collector of Adilabad in Telangana, she had a lot in mind. Adilabad being a tribal and sensitive district, her first priority therefore was to communicate properly with the locals and also gain their trust.
As a first step, Ms Devasena started learning the tribals’ language. For this, she would spend two nights in a week with them, in their villages. But soon the pandemic struck. However, she continued with the language-learning for two months, till the time the Covid-19 situation became severe and the entire country was put in lockdown. Now, her main focus was to implement the norms of lockdown and making sure that not a single person suffers in these unprecedented times. With a slew of initiatives like ‘Gully Warriors’ and `Suraksha’ Ambulances, the 2008 batch officer made the lockdown phase easy on her people. Or at least as easy as it would be humanely possible. She is currently Commissioner & Director School Education.
Talking to Indian Masterminds, Ms. Devasena said, “During my service in administration, I have realised that you can learn about problems from files, but for solutions, you have to be out in the field. I just relied on this learning in our fight against Corona. Since we were facing it for the first time, no one had any experience of handling it. But we knew that somehow, we had to make our plans applicable.”
Gully Warriors
In a situation like this, the youngsters could be hard to deal with. They can’t sit in their home for a long time; they tend not to take the lockdown seriously. Ms. Devasena was aware of this and she came up with a unique idea, one which would turn the lemon into lemonade. In containment zones of the district, this officer first set up an office for every 100 houses and appointed a special officer who was responsible for looking after the basic needs of the people in the area. To help those officers, 10-12 youngsters were identified and chosen as the ‘Gully Warrior’. Since, no one was allowed to come out of their house in containment area; each Gully warrior was given responsibility of manning 10 houses. They would ask the problems and needs of people through phone or whatsapp and pass it on to the special officer. Then they would get the care packages from the officers, consisting of food, medicine etc. and deliver these to the concerned houses.
Dial your Doctor and Suraksha Ambulances
Ms. Devasena was on a field visit during the lockdown when she came to know about a lady who was waiting for her delivery, but couldn’t get an ambulance. Devesena helped her get one. After this incident, she arranged a bunch of ambulances to different areas under the ‘Suraksha’ initiative. People could call these ambulances through phone or whatsapp messages. She also initiated a dialogue with the Indian Medical Association (IMA), and when the private doctors offered her support she started the Dial you Doctor Campaign. Under this scheme, four doctors were available in shifts for 24 hours to know the people’s problems.
Managed the checkpost in Unlock 1
Adilabad, being the border of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtrra, is the gateway to south and central India. It has been the hotbed of naxalite activities for several decades. In unlock one, when inter-state travelling was allowed, the main task was to manage the flow of vehicles without compromising on safeguards.
Hundreds of vehicles used to go through the entry check-post of Adilabad. Ms. Devasena appointed a team of officers from Police, Transport, Medical and Revenue department there. They used to monitor the vehicles and issue the passes for 24 hours. An app was also used to record all the data base of vehicles and people who were crossing the check-post. At regular intervals, Ms. Devasena also used to be on the check-post to ensure everything was carried very smoothly.
It was mainly due to her effort that during lockdown, Adilabad’s entry check-post was considered among one of the best managed check posts in the country.
