Three doctors to lead Covid battle in Madurai now

MADURAI:  With Dr KP Karthikeyan assuming office as Madurai Corporation Commissioner on Monday, Madurai now has three doctors in the frontline leading the fight against Covid-19. The other two doctors are Collector Dr S  Aneesh Sekhar and Monitoring Officer Dr B Chandra Mohan.

Karthikeyan was earlier holding office as the Executive Director of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited from January 2020. Addressing the media persons, he said that developmental works under Smart Cities Mission Programme and AMRUT schemes would be expeditiously completed and made available for public use. "Every street of Madurai holds historical significance. Fundamental planning would be made to develop the city without disturbing its heritage. Meanwhile, all other routine works in health and other departments would be carried out. To bring down the Covid-19 cases, the civic body would intensify the joint efforts, along with the district administration and the ministers, in the district," he added.

Having graduated from Coimbatore Medical College in 2010, Karthikeyan worked as a Junior Resident in the Emergency Department of Apollo Hospitals in Chennai till July 2012. Between June 2013 and August 2014, he underwent training as the Indian Railway Accounts Service Officer. Later, from September 2014 to July 2016, he was an IAS Officer Trainee at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He assumed office as the Assistant Secretary to the Union government's Department of Commerce in August 2016. He has also held offices of Sub Collector and Sub Divisional Magistrate of Tirupattur and Nagapattinam between November 2016 and July 2018. Having held six other offices since then, he took charge as the Madurai Corporation Commissioner on Monday. Meanwhile, S Visakan, who was the former Madurai Corporation Commissioner, was transferred to Dindigul as the Collector.