Raju Narayana Swamy
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Raju Narayana Swamy is an Indian Administrative Service officer . He is now working as the District Collector of Pathanamthitta in Kerala, India. He has scored first rank in SSLC, first rank in university in plus two, first rank in IIT Entrance Examination, 10th Rank in All India IIT Computer Science, first rank in IAS entrance examination and first rank in IAS training institute. He is also authored twenty books on various subjects, his latest work being Edapalliyum Vanghoghum [1].[2]He received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2004 for his work Santhimanthram Muzhagunna Thazhvarayil .[3]
[edit] Career & Political Controversies
His official career has witnessed a lot of political controversies. Posted in his home state ,he always stood against corrupt Politicians. Often his decisions and impartial behaviour were interpreted as his arrogance. Also there are concerted efforts by his opposers in tarnishing his image. [4].
On passing out from IIT Madras Mr. Narayanaswamy was offered scholarship by the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He who came from a middle class family believed that he had a moral obligation to give something in return for the lakhs of rupees the government spent on him as an IIT student.
He had the intelligence and conviction to realize that this money came also from the poorest of the poor - who pay up the excise duty on textiles when they buy cloth, who pay up customs, excise and sales tax on diesel when they travel in a bus, and in numerous other ways indirectly pay the government. So he decided to join IAS hoping he could do something for the people of this country. And he became a First Rank Holder, which is very difficult for even a hardworking aspirant.
After a decade of meritorious service in IAS, today, Narayanaswamy was forced out of the IAS profession. A real estate agent wanted to fill up a paddy field which is banned under law. An application came up before Narayanaswamy who was sub collector then, for an exemption from this rule for this plot of land. Upon visiting the site he found that the complaint from 60 poor families that they will face water logging due to the waste water from a nearby Government Medical College if this paddy field was filled up was correct.
Narayanswamy came under intense political pressure but he did what was right - refused permission for filling up the paddy field. That was his first confrontation with politicians. Soon after his marriage his father-in-law closed down a public road to build compound wall for his plot of land. People approached Narayanaswamy with complaint. When talking with his own father-in-law did not help, he removed the obstructing wall with police help. The result, his marriage broke up. As district Collector he raided the house of a liquor baron who had defaulted Rupees 11 crores payment to government and carried out revenue recovery. A Minister directly telephoned him and ordered to return the forfeited articles to the house of the liquor baron. Narayanswamy politely replied that it is difficult. The minister replied that Narayanaswamy will suffer.
In his district it was a practice to collect crores of rupees for earthen bunds meant for poor farmers,but which were never constructed. A bill for rupees 8 crores came up before Narayanaswamy. He inspected the bund. He found it very weak and said that he will pass the bill after the rainy season to ensure that the bund served the purpose. As expected the earthen bund was too weak to stand the rain and it disappeared in the rain. But he created a lot of enemies for saving 8 crores public money.
The net result of all such unholy activities was that he was asked to go on leave by the government. Later such an illustrious officer was posted as "State Co-Ordinator, Quality Improvement Programme for Schools". This is what the politician will do to a honest officer with backbone - post him in the most powerless position to teach him a lesson.
Since he found that nothing can be achieved for the people if he continued with the State Service he opted for central service. But that too was denied on some technical ground. He took leave from Civil Service, and went to Paris to take up an assignment of United Nations. After, the left Government under VS Achuthanandan took power, he was called back to service as the Kottayam District Collector. When the revenue encroachments in Idukki was spotted, the Left government appointed him as the District collector of Idukki. In Idukki, he exposed a Rs. 19 crore land scandal involving Kerala PWD Minister TU Kuruvila leading to the minister's resignation. However, on 25th September, Raju Narayana Swami was again shunted out from Idukki to Pathanamthitta as collector.
