India Unbound मासिकाने प्रसिद्ध केलेला हा interview
Posted By: Mahesh Gaikwadon: December 29, 2015In: and edited espjoshi.blogspot.in
Belonging from a farmer family from a small village in Ahmadnagar, Dr. Puroshottam Bhapkar completed MA, LLB, and Ph. D. He started from a teacher’s job and took a giant jump by becoming an IAS. He is known for his daring works and non fearing attitude. He faced many transfers in his career due to his honest work and attitude. He worked as SDM, ADM, Deputy Director, and Deputy Commissioner in his initial postings after MPSC. He was then promoted as an IAS and became CEO of ZP of Parbhani, Dhule and Pune, then Municipal commissioner of Aurangabad, Commissioner Food and Drugs and now he is Education Commissioner of Maharashtra. In an exclusive interview with India Unbound he briefed about his experience in various postings and his work for Mahila Bachat Gat, Education, and Cleanliness.
Q.1
Kindly tell us about your school and college days and where you were born and brought up?
I was born and brought up in a small village called Salwad, in Shevgaon Taluka of Ahmadnagar district. I completed my primary education from ZP school in our village, for high school I went to Shevgaon in Bharati High school. I completed my D. Ed., I stood 8th in state and 1st in Pune and got a job of teacher at a High school at the age of eighteen. While teaching at my school as a teacher I completed my Graduation. After graduation, I resigned from the teacher’s job and took admission for MA in Gokhale Institute in Pune. As I passed, I got another job of a Professor and taught Economics at New Art and Science College, Ahmadnagar.
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Q.2
You always wanted to become an IAS officer?
Yes, that was in my mind since beginning, but for that I chose the other way. I first appeared for MPSC and became Deputy Collector because I was in need of a job. And I was sure that I will get promoted to IAS afterwards as you can see now.
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Q.3
Please tell us about your various postings so far?
My first posting was in Jalgaon as a probationer. Then I was Deputy Collector in Dhule. After that I was SDM at Niphad and Malegaon, which are in Nashik district, and then I was ADM at Dhule again. After that I was transferred to Pune as Deputy Director of Sainik Kalyan. Then I got post of Deputy Commissioner of Rehabilitation of Pune Division. After Pune, I was transferred as Registrar at Rahuri Krushi Vidyapeeth, Ahmadnagar. Then I was Deputy Commissioner – Revenue in Nashik. Meanwhile I got promoted as IAS.
After promotion, my first posting was CEO of ZP, Parbhani then CEO of ZP, Dhule, then CEO of ZP, Pune. After working as CEO, I was posted as Collector of Amravati District. I was Municipal Commissioner of Aurangabad afterwards, then Municipal Administrator Mumbai, commissioner Food and Drugs and now Education Commissioner.
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Q.4
Among all these post of yours, which posts were most challenging?
The post of SDM at Malegaon was very challenging as Malegaon was very sensitive place in Maharashtra because people from all religious faith reside in Malegaon, all type of festivals are celebrated there; handling law and order was very responsible assignment and I think in that tenure of three and half years, I have done good work.
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From Economics to Law and then agriculture and finally Agricultural-Economics, what exactly interested you more?
Though, I have completed graduation, MA in Economics, LLB and Ph.D I love what I am doing right now. As a Education Commissioner of the state I desire to develop today’s youth in a most satisfying way because they are the backbone of our nation.
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Do you think still India can make up a good economics via Agriculture?
Sure, there is a lot of scope in agriculture. Lot of farming in state is done on dry land; we have to convert that dry land in fertilized field. When I was posted in Amravati as a collector, I got to know that they have annual pattern of crops. Instead of that we should have different crops so productivity can be increased.
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What was your contribution for the welfare of ex-servicemen?
I was deputy director for ex-servicemen for two and a half year. For ex- serviceman we can say that he used to be an abandoned person (prior to my posting) because he had served elsewhere (at the border) and was compensated at another place. Their life was turned upside down. I was fortunate to serve those heroes. It was very enjoyable post as I used to design various schemes for their welfare.
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What contribution should come from the public at large towards the welfare of ex-servicemen?
I think the society should support the parents, and widows of ex-servicemen. Though Maharashtra state is doing well for them I think it needs to be improved more.
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What it takes to be commissioner of Food and Drugs?
Commissioner of food and drugs is very strong post and my agenda there was to free our state from any type of mixture in every product from milk to beverages and vegetables and medicine. Though I was having insufficient staff we formed groups, each for hotels, medicines, hospitals, cosmetics, blood bank and so on. These groups churned in their effort, but at the end I observed that the system they have in labs for testing the product is weak. Also labs are not sufficient. They used to test two to ten samples a day which can be improved to be at least hundred. When our team took the charge, we used to test hundred samples a day. During my stint, for the first time in history FDA registered cases for mixture in water. We went on to raid and register cases of mixture in milk, vegetables, oils and other products too.
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You achieved the outstanding award while you were additional collector, what are the other achievements you feel you deserve?
I have got more than what I expected from the government, and I thank them for such support. Because of this government service I could serve people through different post I was assigned till date.
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It is observed that educating the down trodden is more tough than normal, you managed to achieve a reward; how did you manage to achieve?
Yes, I agree, that educating educated people is easy than the non-educated, backward people because their priorities are different. In all my various postings I tried to build the particular level of education for all schools in the area though they are private or government, which improved students educationally as well as culturally. And most students were backward and we can see now on how they possessed in their life.
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You also received the Peace and humanity award and there are many in the list, what is humanity to you and your formula of peace?
I was in Malegaon, Nashik as SDM for three and a half year. It was considered as sensitive part of the state. And we know that if one part of nation gets on fire then in no time the entire nation will get trapped by it. So to keep peace in Malegaon was very challenging. We were policing the various festivals of various religions so to avoid any untoward from happening. Every department executed their job perfectly. And in result I received Peace and Humanity Award.
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Q.13
In some foreign countries there is no crisis of water, in India we have severe water crisis, and do you think of it in some free time? What do you think?
Water problem in India is still the same that was in 1947. We appeal to people to use water carefully but I think it is the second part. Firstly we have to store water we get from rain. I am doing one Marathi album, “Pani Petat Aahe (Water is getting Fire)” where I wrote importance of water storage. And I think that the amount of rain we get every monsoon is enough to satisfy our thirst but each one of us from common man to high authority have to commit to our self that we will store and use water carefully.
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You have got transferred to various postings, have you got any kind of oppose while working?
It is a tradition in our society that, if someone is doing good work, some people rise from nowhere and try to oppose the good. Not on all postings, but I faced such opposition at some postings. But I never ever let them affect on my work.
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Please tell us about your contribution in education improvements in various postings?
When I was in Parbhani as CEO of ZP we started program called ‘Shaishanik Shatkar’ (Educational Sixer), which includes, adopting the students, improve their maths, reading, look after their daily work out, computer studies and teacher should live in office. We adopted 45 thousand students in Parbhani and 35 thousand students in Dhule, we improved their qualification by 24 percent to 57 percent within 6 months.
I also transferred 300 to 400 teachers from schools at a time, because they were in same place from last 20 to 30 years.
Tell us about your drive of road widening in Aurangabad where people used to call you “Singham Officer”
When I was Municipal Commissioner of Aurangabad, the road of city were very narrow and many religious places like (temple and masjid) and encroachments came between development and widening of roads. So these places have been removed peacefully. During that citizens of Aurangabad also co-operated with us. No place has been removed without any purpose.
For that daring action on worship places people called me Singham Officer, they also made videos of it and published on YouTube.
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You had taken up the cause of cleanliness in all government offices, what happened to that?
At all my posting the first work I used to do is cleanliness for one to two hours daily. From, Parbhani, Dhule to Aurangabad and Pune every place from last 12-15 years, I dedicatedly launched cleanliness drives along with my officials and citizens and villagers. We launched the program called “One Hour for Cleanliness.”
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You helped women in forming Bachat Gats tell us about it?
We started a scheme called “Ghatsthapane pasun Ghat sthapana” which used to conduct in 9 days of Navratri festival. In that 9 days we established more than 45 Bachat Gats, we also helped them to open accounts in banks and they stood with their business in market.
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Who is your role model?
Every passionate person who is working hard to make his or her dream come true is my role model.
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How do you spend your leisure time?
I work out daily.
What advise you would give to give to students who aspire to become IPS or IAS?
Students who want to become IPS or IAS should clear their mind by asking themselves what they want to do after taking the position of IPS or IAS. Many students sit for UPSC, MPSC exams because they get attracted towards the facility IPS or IAS person gets.
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What message would you like to give to teachers of Maharashtra through India Unbound Global Magazine?
I want to say to teachers of Maharashtra that they should not compare themselves with others. From the time of Kings and Queens the place of teacher in our society is respected, they should keep that respect in the eyes of every person whom they encounter by working with complete honesty in their given assignments.
©Indiaunbound
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An inspiring interview
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