(f). 6th Posting - DPAP, Jhargram, Midnapore

During my tenure as Project Officer, I attended an all-India training programme on DPAP for a fortnight at a place called Yelwal on the outskirts of Mysore city. For this training, I flew from Calcutta via Madras (it was still not named Chennai) to Bangalore, where I halted at a hotel as it was late in the night by the time I reached there. It was the first air travel in my service life. The morning after, I boarded the tourist train, Vrindavan Express, running between Bangalore and Mysore, at Bangalore, to reach Mysore. I reached Mysore in about three hours and thence went to the University of Mysore to report for training. The organisers took me to the venue of the training. The department of Development Studies, University of Mysore, conducted the training, Government of India bore the cost.

It was an All-India level training. The Project Heads from DPAP districts all over India attended. We were three from the three projects of West Bengal. We used to have classes from morning till around 5:30 PM with a break for lunch. University professors and guest lecturers used to take the classes. In the classes, we used to have talks and deliberation on development-oriented matters, dryland farming, particular problems of drought-prone areas, and the ways to combat them.

Here, I recount an episode not connected to the training program, which touched me to a certain extent. Some girls of Mysore University had some classes near our venue for training. We used to come by them during the class break. I noticed a Tamil girl amongst them showing interest in me. She was tall, beautiful, and had a good physique. While passing by us, she would smile and often cast love glances at me. It would be a travesty of truth if I say I was not attracted (I was a little over 32 years of age at that time). But I restrained myself and ignored it; I was already married with a child. I did not want anything untoward to happen to them. 

During that training, we, the trainees, were taken to the historical places of Bellur and Sravana Bellagola. Bellur and Sravana Bellagola were in the district of Hasan in the State of Karnataka. Bellur was the early capital of the Hoysala Empire. It is known for the Chennakesava temple, one of the finest examples of craftsmanship during Hoysala. When we visited the temple, we were mesmerized by its exquisite beauty. (A picture of the temple from Wikipedia is in the left panel.) But this picture hardly reflects the beauty and the artistic ornamentation on its walls and columns.

Śravaṇa Beḷlagoḷa was one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in Jainism, one that had reached a peak in architectural and sculptural activity under the patronage of the Western Ganga Dynasty of Talakad. There was a gigantic statue of Gomateshwara Bahubali on the top of a hillock at Sravana Bellagola. We had to climb a large number of stairs to have a look at it. (A picture of the statue from Wikipedia is on the left panel). 

We stayed at Mysore only for two weeks to complete our course. Even during this short period, the city and its people had earned a soft corner in my heart. I visited Mysore twice since then, once with colleagues as a part of the Bharat Darshan programme of the IAS induction training course and later again with the family. Details of these visits are available on the Travelogue page of this website.

During my tenure as Project Officer, DPAP, there was a devastating flood in August 1978. The flood affected most of the districts of South Bengal and Calcutta. The State Govt deployed officers from different places to combat the flood situation. In the Midnapore district, Tamluk and Ghatal subdivisions were the worst affected. I was detailed for flood duty at Tamluk with Swapan Chakrabarti, an IAS officer, posted as the Settlement Officer, Midnapore. We moved together. Reaching Tamluk was difficult; we could make it with great effort. We started in the morning and arrived at Tamluk in the evening via Contai. Usually, it would take a couple of hours to reach Tamluk from Midnapore. Our attempt to reach Tamluk directly via Panskura had failed as the National Highway had been inaccessible after the bridge on the Damodar. 

Kalyan Bagchi was the ADM, Tamluk at that time. He was a friendly man, free from ego. His wife and mother, too, were cordial and hospitable, as I found during my subsequent interactions with them. 

While at  Tamluk for a flood relief operation, I stayed in the house of the Subdivisional Police Officer, Kirit Sengupta, who was my batch-mate in the WBCS (he had gone for the police service), as his guest. His family was away at that time. The morning after, Kirit & I were detailed for Mecheda, a development block of the Tamluk subdivision. A piece of information had reached that the local villagers had taken shelter on the first floor of Mecheda BDO's office at Kaktia. The BDO Chittaranjan Das was in bad shape. He had been living in a sub-human condition. We left for Mecheda by boat. Waist-deep water was flowing over the road. We heard the cracking sound of collapsing houses from all around. People were calling for help and rescue. The boats were in crying need for rescue operations. We felt we should release the boat and move on foot. We did so and walked through the waist-deep water.  It took longer to cover the distance of 8 km to reach BDO's office at Kaktia. We arrived in the evening and helped to distribute relief materials, from a stranded trailer, till late at night. We somehow spent the rest of the night at BDO’s office.

The ground floor of the BDO's office was underwater, and too many people had taken shelter on the first floor. BDO himself was also staying in a first-floor room. There was an unbearable stench all around due to the use of a single toilet in the office by all these people. The BDO, Mr Chittaranjan Das, was in a run-down state. We felt he would fall sick if not removed from the place at once.

Taking the BDO, Chittaranjan Das, along with us, we returned to Tamluk the following day by a stranded truck. Before leaving, the BDO had made all the arrangements for the relief and rescue of the affected people to continue in his absence. He returned to his headquarters after being refreshed by some rest and sleep at Tamluk and continued with relief work. At usual times, Chitta stayed in Tamluk with his family and attended office from there.

I stayed at Tamluk for a few more days to help in flood relief work. I returned to my headquarters after the flood when the situation somewhat normalized in Tamluk. 

The new Panchayat functionaries who had come to power shortly before this calamity had become actively involved in relief and rescue operations. They had done a commendable job during this flood.

When I joined the service, the services under the Government of West Bengal were classified1 into two broad categories, Gazetted and non-Gazetted. As an officer of the West Bengal Civil Service, I was in the Gazetted Category as a Class I Officer. Matters of appointments, postings, transfers, and the leave of the Gazetted officers were published in the Official Gazette of the State Government. Gazetted officers had some exclusive privileges like the power of attestation of documents and the issue of certificates of certain kinds for the purposes like passport, residence, caste determination, etc. Gazetted officers were not required to sign attendance in the office. They were also self-drawing officers, meaning they drew their pay and allowances from the Treasury on the authorization known as a ‘Pay Slip’ issued by the Accountant General from time to time. 

The State Services were, however, re-classified into Groups like A, B, C & D, later by the Left Front Govt in 1978. The Gazetted and the non-Gazetted classifications were dispensed with.2 The erstwhile Gazetted officers were re-classified into Group A and Group B. The Govt. withdrew the self-drawing powers of the Gazetted officers, though such officers enjoyed other privileges as before. The pay and allowances of the erstwhile Gazetted officers were started being drawn in the Common Establishment Bill with other officials. Later, the Govt. had made it obligatory for Gazetted officers to sign attendance registers.

I left the Agency on April 27, 1979, after being appointed as the Subdivisional Officer, Jhargram. Trinath Krishna Sinha, a 1970-batch WBCS (Executive) Officer, succeeded me.