All’s well that ends well

During those few years I received many offers from the private sector to serve as an advisor for various corporate houses, some very lucrative. While I came close to accepting in many cases, I somehow never clinched the issue.

Ashok Kundalia Managing Director, among many other companies, of Radiant Cables had, by then, become quite close to me. Nearly thirty years ago I had served in Radiant Cables as a Director on behalf of the State Finance Corporation of Andhra Pradesh state.

Ashok persuaded me to accept the Chairmanship of Astha Power Corporation Private Limited a gas-based power unit which had yet to become operational. He was also instrumental in dissuading me from accepting the other offers which came my way.

Since the beginning of my service I had the good fortune of being associated with voluntary action and community-based organisations one way or the other As early as in my sub- collector's days, I had come into touch with Father Windy of theVillage Reconstruction Organisation. He had, in 1971, done a good job of rehabilitating poor people in Chirala town after a severe cyclone had rendered them homeless.

Our association continued for a long time, and I learnt a number of useful things about how the work of NGOs can add value to the efforts of government, especially in terms of bridging the gaps in last mile delivery and ensuring that goods and services reach the intended beneficiaries.

A few years later, when I was serving in the Governor’s office, Dr. P.D.K. Rao had just returned from the USA and was introduced to me by a common friend. He approached me with a request to help him find a suitable place for him to settle down and work for the welfare of the neglected sections of society in that area. I suggested to him to try either Adilabad or Srikakulam districts. He went to Srikakulam where J.

Harinarayana was the collector, chose a village, formed an organisation and settled down. He has remained single and is totally dedicated to his work. To this day he lives in the same place and has to his credit an enormous amount of good work especially in the fields of housing, education and livelihoods.

Around the same time I made acquaintance with Dr. B.V. Parameswara Rao who runs an institution known as Bhagavathula Charitable Trust (BCT) is a primarily concerned with improving the lot of the deprived sections of society, it has done excellent work in the fields of primary education, primary health infrastructure such as roads and housing and also in providing and adding value to livelihood systems.
In the year 1977 a cyclone of unprecedented magnitude struck the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh state.

A small strip lying in the districts of Krishna and Guntur was ravaged by a vicious tidal wave which, within a matter of a few minutes, razed many villages to the ground, leaving nearly fifteen thousand people dead. Sharda Mukherjea was the Governor of Andhra Pradesh at that time and I was serving as secretary to the Governor. She was good enough to let me go back to Guntur district which I had left to join her a few months ago. I stayed there for ten days and did what I could to assist the district collector C.R.

Kamalanathan in relief and rehabilitation activities. Soon thereafter I was able to persuade the Governor to form a new organisation named Chetana. The seed money for its activities had come from cyclone relief assistance provided by the Tata Relief Committee - a huge amount of Rs. 75 lakhs. The whole idea was not to fritter away money in the shape of grants and doles, to but use the available funds to leverage institutional finance for funding, not individual items like houses, but commercially viable projects so that the beneficiaries had a sense of ownership and participation.

Chetana functioned successfully for several years thereafter but, like most such institutions, lacked the vitality to survive the passage of time. Similar was the fate of another organisation called Anveshana which I later started as collector of Krishna district. Today, some forty years later, when I look around I find that there are many organizations, small, medium and large, all informed by a similar persuasion and doing very well. I am happy to note that there is general agreement in all circles today that "the government alone" attitude will longer do and community driven - initiatives should supplement and complement the efforts of the central and state governments.

Major innovations in public policy, such as the Public Private Partnership mode of implementing infrastructure programmes, and the introduction Corporate Social Responsibility by an amendment to the income tax law, have all changed the development paradigm altogether.

I had planned, as long ago as the 1989, to start a non-governmental organisation. The idea was that it should serve as an NGO for NGOs, a platform for the pooling and sharing of experiences by community-based organizations and an institution to promote enterprise and productive activity on the part of the youth of the country. The idea finally took shape as an organisation called Vaaradhi.

With the help of some friends and colleagues, and with generous the promise of open-ended support by Ashok, Vaaradhi was registered the organisation. Every year competitions are held in regional can be in AP and Telangana states are held by Vaaradhi elocution and essay writing. Winner of those centres are then invited Hyderabad for a state level competition on Father's birthday.

Awards are given away in the name of my parents. Successful winners at the state level are also taken on study tours other states in the country. Vaaradhi has grown from strength to strength and has now acquired recognition as an NGO of some repute.