Among serving IAS officers of Rajasthan cadre, only Rajat Kumar Mishra, has prior hands-on experience of handling war like situation as district collector.
Mishra, a 1992-batch officer, who is currently serving at centre as fertiliser secretary, was collector Jaislamer in 1999 during the Kargil conflict which lasted 2 months from May to July.
“Mishra had done exceedingly well as collector. The then chief minister Ashok Gehlot was very happy. Jaislamer being the border district was very sensitive,” said R C Jain, former IAS, who was then posted in chief minister office.
Besides, Mishra other IAS officers who had then served as collectors of bordering districts of Barmer, SriGanganagar and Bikaner have retired now.
That time Niranjan Arya, a 1989 batch IAS officer, who retired as chief secretary was Bikaner collector during the Kargil war.
K N Gupta, a 1988 batch IAS officer promoted from state service was the collector SriGanganagar while his batchmate, R N Arvind, also promoted from state service was collector of Barmer during that period.
At present the onus is on Jaisalmer collector Pratap Singh, Barmer collector Tina Dabi, Bikaner collector Namrata Vrishni and SriGanganagar collector Dr Manju.
“All these collectors are young and have performed well so far. Since Pakistan is attacking incessantly on these districts, they have a bigger challenge in hand,” Jain said.
Vivek Shukla is a management graduate who has worked in corporate worked for 20 years and is now pursuing his passion — news.
