interviewBy: Ankur Kalita
Ankur Kalita, recently had an interview with the renowned I.R.S. officer and a famous Author Padmapani Bora. He is currently serving as Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Textile, Government of India. Here are the excerpts of it.
Can you share a bit of your journey as an I.R.S. officer?
This is really a nice journey. I passed my 13 years in this service and got the opportunity to serve in three different places Delhi, Mumbai and Guwahati till now. Initially after my training I joined as an Assistant Commissioner of Income tax in Delhi then I also had a good experience in my own place Guwahati where I served in different posts and worked for the entire North east. I have grown personal connections and cultural connections with many people while working in Guwahati. Now as I’ve been serving in the Ministry from the last two years here also, I have got some different experience. After coming to the Ministry, I faced lots of challenges during Covid pandemic and worked during the entire Pandemic. During lockdown in our Textile ministry, we worked for Manufacturing of P.P.E. kits and N95 masks. I was in the committee of Monitoring and Manufacturing of P.P.E kits and N95 masks and I worked with our team during the entire Pandemic and Lockdown. We started from zero and now I am happy to share that our country became the second largest producer of P.P.E. kits and I am glad to be a part of this. So, I have got mixed experiences in my journey till today.
You worked in the Ministry during the entire lockdown but in between you had taken an initiative “Sarathi” which was a voluntary tele-medical consultation initiative for Covid affected people. How did you come up with it?
First of all, let me tell you that this is my hobby. I always feel happy to work for social causes and for people and this is something that comes from my inner side. I had taken this initiative during the Second wave of Covid but before also during the starting of Covid pandemic I thought whether we can contribute something during this Pandemic. At that time I had done a course in Harvard University and that was regarding “Strengthening Community Health ”. I took up this course for three months and I completed it online. I wanted to do something positive that time and I spoke to some of my friends and as I am also involved with a N.G.O. We planned that a Sero Survey should be done in Assam so that we can analyse the impact of Covid. We have done this survey in nine districts of Assam and the final report was also published in an international journal. We also informed ICMR about the survey and the State government of Assam also helped us a lot during this survey. It was my personal effort and with the help of people we could successfully complete this in Assam. During the second wave we started “Sarathi”. It was a tele medical consultation program which continued for one month and we received more than 1000 calls and there was a dedicated call centre team where they used to respond to the calls and connect with doctors. So, these are some initiatives I have taken along with my official works during pandemic and I am happy that I got the opportunity to do something positive during pandemic.
How did you spend your childhood?
I spent my childhood in Jorhat till class 10. I belong to a middle-class family. I used to play Cricket with my friends and during school life I participated in Quiz competitions and I also had an aim for Civil service and my parents always used to motivate me. After that I came to Cotton College where I got more exposure. I was involved with Magazine also and as I Spend hostel Life in Cotton College so I was more excited to learn about Civil service. In Cotton College I got the opportunity to communicate with different people who are from different parts of Assam. Again, after that I came to JNU, Delhi and here I got more opportunities, more exposures in different fields. In JNU I got the full idea about the preparation of Civil service and in Hostel also my friends used to prepare for Civil service and we used to have competition so in that way I spent my Childhood and my college life.
Now you are working in Delhi as a Government officer and in the same place you passed your College life. Now when you pass through those streets where you roam, when you pass through those places where you have created memories in College Life. How do you feel?
Yes, I frequently visit JNU campus and when I was in Guwahati during my service, I used to visit my Cotton College hostel too. We are self-made so when I visit those places, I become nostalgic and I found the difference. The place where we used to walk, Ganga dhaba, common market inside the JNU campus. Now when I visit those places, I become nostalgic and want to go back to those days. So, these are some memorable experiences during college life.
We can see that there are very less numbers of candidates who pass UPSC from Assam in comparison to different states of the country. What do you think about this issue?
In Assam Youth have ‘talent’. But there is an absence of environment for UPSC preparation and also the absence of infrastructure for the preparation. But now I think it is slowly changing. During our preparation time there was a gap but now we are getting candidates every year. Now coaching institutes are developing in the state but I feel there are still some gaps. We need proper guidance; there is also a problem of unavailability of materials. The way materials are available in Delhi in that way it is not available in our place there we can’t have any option. So, we need some changes and the candidate should have a positive approach for the preparation.
What was the aim of your book “Discovering the Heritage of Assam”?
When we mention our state Assam people have an idea about Kaziranga National Park or Kamakhya temple. But there are more Heritage sites in our state which we can try to take to the National and International level. So, I tried to compile all the sources of Heritage sites in single source. My aim was to take those sites to the outer world where people will get an idea about our state, about our culture and people will have a basic knowledge about the state. I started writing this book in 2018. I tried to include Ancient Mediaeval, Modern, National and living Heritage in this book of the state. I collected photos for my book by myself and some photos are collected by my source. My book was published by Penguin publication. I am happy to share that all the copies are sold out and now the second edition of my book is coming. I wrote a letter to Amitabh Bachchan and requested him to forward my book and he accepted my request and after meeting him within two three days he sends me his write-up and I was amazed by his simplicity and positive nature and he also told me that time that Bollywood also have the responsibility towards Assam and he happily accepted my request. So, this way I completed my book and now I’m glad to share that the second edition is coming very soon.
What would be your message for the youth?
Youth should have dreams and they shouldn’t only have dreams they should also have to work hard. Youth have talents, have potential so it’s the time to use all those in positive work and go ahead.
