The IAS officer who is a people’s man

He is an IAS officer of a different calibre. He feels for the under-privileged sections of the society and reaches out to rural and tribal heartlands across the country where poor fishermen live, in whatever position he holds. He believes that the government is of and for the people. Meet Dr Mallela Venkateswara Rao, the chief executive of National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), who connects with the common man in rural areas during his visits to coastal villages and places where the NFDB has stakes

Dr Venkateswara Rao always believes that as a chief functionary of a public organisation, it is he and his department who should go in search out for beneficiaries and not vice-versa. No wonder poor fishermen and women find a friend and a compassionate official in him. He sanctions benefits that are due to beneficiaries on the spot during his visit, collects their applications and forwards them to the concerned staff with an instruction that they be processed within the set timeframe. These small gestures are paying rich dividends and the NFDB office is bustling with activities.

As the chief executive of NFDB, Dr Rao visits even the remotest villages in Nagaland, loses no time to sanction funds and supply necessary tools to make fishing an economically viable proposition. He spends hours educating fishermen on government schemes meant for their uplift. That is precisely the reason why his NFDB office in Hyderabad buzzes with life. Scores of fishermen who come to his office are well-received and provided hospitality. More than anything, the CEO gives them his cell number and asks them to “disturb me anytime if you are confronted with any problem.”

Karthik, an office bearer of a fishermen society in Machilipatnam, said that he and his society members who visited the NFDB office recently were treated as royal guests of the office and every application made by them was attended hassle-free.

“For years we had been running from pillar to post to get the smallest governmental benefit. But here is someone who is personally reaching out to us and bombarding us with livelihood bonanzas including fish transport vehicles (4 wheelers), fishing nets and two-wheeler mopeds for individual fishermen,” said Karthik.Hundreds of heavy and medium vehicles have been given to fishermen societies to relieve them from the drudgery of manual transportation to places far away from their fishing harbours.

In a span of just two years, Dr Rao personally popularised NFDB in the coastal districts of India. He gets hundreds of calls in a week from remotest fishermen villages and coastal towns either for apprising an issue or for thanking him for the positive response from his department.