From IAS topper to upright officer taking on Kerala’s high and mighty, meet TV Anupama

[timmy]

• TNM Staff
•  
• Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - 09:03

Share @Facebook Share @twitter Share @Email Share @google+ Share @reddit

 

 

Facebook/Mission IAS- 2017

When TV Anupama took charge as the District Collector of Alappuzha district in August 2017, no one in Kerala’s political circles could have imagined that she would rock the landscape by taking on a powerful minister in Pinarayi Vijayan’s cabinet.

But Anupama set off a political storm in the state within weeks of her appointment, thanks to her report on the alleged land encroachment by Transport Minister Thomas Chandy, in violation of the Kerala Paddy and Wetland Act.

For those who have followed Anupama’s bureaucratic career, however, this would come as no surprise. Anupama’s  actions now show much the same tenacity and determination with which she approached her dream of becoming an IAS officer, and the same upright work ethic she has abided by through her career thus far.

A dedicated student

A young girl from Ponnani in Malappuram district had always nurtured a dream of becoming an IAS officer. Even as she entered the Goa campus of BITS Pilani – one of India’s premier engineering institutions – she held on to her dreams of joining the civil services. 

Working round the clock, she moved one step closer to her dream every day. In 2010, Kerala woke up to a proud moment – TV Anupama had secured the All India Rank 4 in the UPSC examinations.

In an interview to The Hindu soon after this big win, Anupama said, “Aim high. There is no end to what you can achieve. I certainly would have written the examinations again if I did not get IAS.”

Anupama also told eager interviewers that she had spent 11 months preparing for civil service exams. During that time, she spent 13 to 16 hours a day with her books and journals, and never slept for more than six hours.

Gritty officer who took on a trade union

It was in 2014 that the young IAS officer caught media attention when she filed a complaint at the Medical College Police Station against Murali, the then CITU convener. Anupama had decided to take on the union for demanding gawking wages or Nokkukooli – money paid to union headload workers to simply watch privately hired labourers load or unload goods.

When Anupama and her family moved into a home, CITU convener B Murali and his associates had demanded money from her, because her family had unloaded their home appliances by themselves. When Anupama protested that the workers could not demand wages for gawking, Murali forcibly unloaded her washing machine, and demanded money for the work. He scribbled his phone number on a wall in front of her house, and told her to call him and tell him when he would get the payment.

But things did not end there – the group continued to threaten the officer’s family. On Anupama’s complaint, Murali was arrested and remanded for 15 days.

Tenacious Food Safety Commissioner of Kerala

No year was as eventful as 2015 for this plucky IAS officer. Anupama was made the Food Safety Commissioner of Kerala and shot to public popularity soon after. The IAS officer carried out multiple raids on dealers, and sent thousands of samples for testing, exposing high levels  of adulteration and rampant use of pesticides.

The investigation led by her revealed that several categories of foodstuffs were often contaminated with as much as 300% the allowed level of pesticides.

Even as thousands of vegetable and fruit samples were submitted to the court and many dealers arrested, what created a furore was that many of these perishables were being bought from Tamil Nadu.

Anupama then carved a niche for herself by urging Keralites to start organic farming and home gardening to produce the vegetables required for their families. A Quint report says that under the campaign promoted by this officer, the state government delivered free seeds and saplings to people and helped them install drip-irrigation and bio-gas facilities at their homes.

As a result of her efforts, the state – which used to get 70% of its vegetables and fruits from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka – now natively grows a majority of its own produce.

Anupama had then told Deccan Chronicle, “We were only a part of it. We spoke about it, presented in the meetings about it but rest was done by the government or public. People started becoming so aware, we continued lifting samples (from check-posts and markets).”

What was most commendable about all this was that Anupama had faced an uphill struggle of making the Food Safety Department, which had only come into existence in 2011, take strong decisions that would impact trade with a neighbouring state.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Anupama had explained the challenges she faced heading the newly set-up department.

”For established departments, there is precedence for everything and you just have to follow it. If there is a specific issue, you need special intervention. In the case of food safety, there was a total lack of resources. No proper office, no sufficient human resources, not enough vehicles,” she said.

Not surprisingly, her work earned her the wrath of the pesticide lobby, which filed many cases against her for the various reports filed by her department.

Action as Alappuzha collector

 In August 2017, Anupama took charge as the 48th District Collector of Alappuzha. Immediately after taking charge, she had told media that she would study the problems of people and make all efforts to solve them.

But Kerala Transport Minister Thomas Chandy, a businessman-turned-politician, probably did not dream that Anupama’s plans for the district would create so much trouble for his political career.

It took the fiery IAS officer only months to submit a report to Revenue Principal Secretary PH Kurian against Chandy. The report stated that portions of Marthandam Lake in Alappuzha had been leveled for building the Minister’s Lake Palace Resort. The report has also said that a paddy field was levelled to build a parking lot for the resort. It also pointed at fingers at various officials for aiding the Minister in violating the Kerala Paddy Land and Wetland Act, and for building and paving a road for the resort.

Though caught amidst a mountain of allegations, Thomas Chandy has remained unfazed, challenging the investigative officers.

The Minister told the media, “If the opposition can prove that I have encroached on the lake I will resign as both MLA and Minister and sit at home. I challenge them, but they are not ready to take up the challenge.”

Though the chorus calling for the Minister’s resignation has grown louder, he has remained unmoved, and the LDF continues to drag its feet over the issue.

Whether or not Thomas Chandy quits his position remains to be seen. But one thing is already clear: in TV Anupama, Alappuzha and Kerala have got an IAS officer determined to do her job as she sees fit, no matter who or what stands in her way.

Source: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/ias-topper-upright-officer-taking-kerala-s-high-and-mighty-meet-tv-anupama-71578

[timmy]

The IAS Officer Who Took On Powerful Pesticide And Food Adulteration Lobby To Make Kerala Eat Healthy

Pooja Chaudhuri

February 22nd, 2017

Image Source : iaspaper

There are files to audit, papers to read and meetings to attend. Duty calls TV Anupama every day, burying her with work that she executes with utmost excellence. Tucked into her office in Thiruvananthapuram, she doesn’t compromise on her responsibilities as Kerala’s Director of Social Justice Department.

---

Image Source: hindustantimes

---

TV Anupama’s journey began as a UPSC aspirant who dreamt of becoming an honourable civil servant. Her dedication and hard work separated her from the thousands of students who aspired the same. Since her time in BITS Pilani – Goa campus, she was determined to crack the UPSC examination and said that she would attempt it again and again until she got into the IAS.
In her first attempt in 2009, she did her state, Kerala, proud by securing all-India rank 4.

But her most memorable accomplishments were achieved during her time as Kerala’s food safety commissioner. Within 15 months in office, she took the state’s powerful pesticide lobby and food adulterators head on – triggering a healthy food campaign across Kerala.

---

Image Source: ibtimes

---

2015 was the most ‘eventful’ period for the young IAS officer who fought one controversy after another — from restraining the entry of pesticide-laden vegetables from Tamil Nadu to banning certain packaged products – she conducted random raids in markets and check posts and seized adulterated products. At least 6,000 samples were sent for testing from various farms in one year and 750 cases were registered against defaulters.

The tests revealed that fruits and vegetables in the state contained 300% more pesticide residue than the accepted limit. The startling facts awakened Keralites who then started growing vegetables without pesticides. Currently, the state produces 70% vegetables on its own – which was previously bought from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.

The state government also cooperated and contributed by providing grow-bags, seeds and saplings home-delivered free of cost. It also provided a subsidy to install drip-irrigation facility and biogas plants in homes, making way for a silent organic revolution of sorts.

Her journey was not easy. She had to fight many cases filed against her by the powerful lobby with her own money.

---

Anupama’s current work

After her role as the Food Safety Commissioner, Anupama was on maternity leave, and since November 2016 she has been working as the Director of the Social Justice Department, Kerala.

The Logical Indian spoke to Anupama who gave us a brief insight into her current work. The social justice department is responsible for the welfare and social security of five categories of people – children (both development and protection), women, senior citizens, differently-abled and transgender people. Since her employment with the department, she has initiated activities to improve the quality of Anganwadi – a government sponsored child-care and mother-care centre in India. The department is also proposing to start a comprehensive program for the welfare of senior citizens. More projects are in line to be executed, which will be taken up by her. 

 

---

Image Source: expandinglight newsminute

---

Food adulteration is a grim reality in India

We’ve been hearing that breakfast is the most important meal of the day since we were toddlers. A nutritious breakfast sets the tone for the day…..…or does it?
Did you know that your first cup of wake-up coffee might not even be real coffee, but coffee-flavoured mud, starch or worse? And no, we can’t switch to tea because we might be chugging a cup of coal tar dye. Apple juice or milk is no good either. While the former might just have fungi patulin, the latter might be a mix of harmful chemicals frantically pumped into cows.
To this effect, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oftentimes rejects products shipped from India – from food to generic medicines to cosmetics.
From local vegetable vendors to multinational brands, food adulteration is a massive problem in India that no one talks about. Food Sentry, a global food source monitoring company, names India the world’s worst food violator, closely followed by China. One out of five food samples fails quality tests in India, as per FSSAI Annual Public Laboratory Testing Report, 2014-15. From farm to fork – harmful and deadly alien substances and non-food items are being unknowingly consumed by us on a daily basis. Corruption in the food industry has caused tens of middle-men to alter, substitute, pass-off or turn a blind eye to dangerous substances entering our everyday diet.

More than a third of food adulteration is due to excessive or illegal pesticides, unsanitary conditions, and filth, and pathogen contamination. Companies mislabel packaged food to show that their products are healthy.

FSSAI tests on conducted 49,290 food samples in 2015-15 revealed that only 20% of the food was safe to consume, in 2011-12, the number was only 11%. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala contributed 90% to the country’s food frauds in the year 2014-15.

Food adulteration mainly takes place when someone in the supply chain – from farm to the factory, to the market to your kitchen – tries to earn profits by altering, substituting, or passing off unacceptable processes or materials. For instance, the milk obtained from cows in diluted in the farms, tampered with by the middleman, misrepresented or mislabelled by the selling company, and finally substituted by the time it reaches your kitchen.

---

Remedies to spot food frauds at home
Most violated foods are minimally processed or raw, including vegetables, fruits, seafood, spices, meats, dairy products, and grains. However, there are ways by which we can spot these food frauds at home.

---

---

The Logical Indian Take

India is uneducated when it comes to food adulteration. The only thing close to food adulteration the general public is aware of, apart from the hoax created about plastic fragments in ‘kurkure’, is the 2015 ban on ‘Maggi’, which is ironic as the noodles were confirmed safe for consumption by food safety and standard agencies of U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam.

Shortage of manpower and skill in the FSSAI has caused the food adulteration industry to flourish further. Lack of transparency and sincerity on the part of authorities has added to the issue.

Kerala owes its organic farming to TV Anupama. Her campaign against adulteration brought to light the excessive amounts of pesticides used and injected in fruits and vegetables to artificially ripen them. 

---

 

Image Source: emergingkerala

---

When she was appointed as Food Safety Commissioner, the department was fairly new – started in 2011. There was a lack of resources, no proper office and not enough vehicles. But within a short span of time, she not only set up the department but also changed Kerala’s food habits.

We need more young civil servants like her who aren’t afraid to question and tackle the faults in the system. Due to bureaucratic reshuffling, she is now the Director of Social Justice Department, Kerala, but her efforts as commissioner of food safety will always be valued.

https://thelogicalindian.com/story-feed/get-inspired/tv-anupama/

[timmy]

[boeing747]

nice, we need ppl like her

[Amrita]

Great post 👍