: How a Determined IAS Officer Transformed Surat Forever After a Deadly Plague #IndiaNEWS #Civil Servants The second half of September 1994 was an inflection point for Surat, an industrial hub for textiles

How a Determined IAS Officer Transformed Surat Forever After a Deadly Plague #IndiaNEWS #Civil Servants
The second half of September 1994 was an inflection point for Surat, an industrial hub for textiles and diamond-cutting units in Gujarat, which till this day attracts migrants from all over the country in search of work. It was a time when this commercial city was devastated by the pneumonic plague, a severe lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis which can spread from one person to another through the air.
This particular bacteria “is transmitted to humans through the bites of fleas that have previously fed on infected animals??? such as rats and other animals, according to a Mayo Clinic explainer. Although a government-appointed investigation committee observed that the source of this outbreak was “ecological disturbances??? caused by the earthquake in Latur, Maharashtra, a year earlier, conditions in Surat were extremely ripe for its spread.
Back in September 1994, only a third of the city was covered by drainage systems, piped drinking water and a working system of garbage collection.
Add heavy rainfall, flooding, overflowing garbage, carcasses of dead rats and no semblance of preventive action by the citys municipal authorities to the mix and what you have is a city extremely vulnerable to any disease outbreaks. The city was already witness to regular outbreaks of dengue, malaria and cholera, amongst others, and those worst affected by this state of affairs were slum dwellers.
Although the actual death toll from the pneumonic plague by some estimates stood at 56, it created mass panic among the citys residents with reports of people hoarding tetracycline, an antibiotic used to treat a variety of infections, and clean water.
By some estimates, nearly 60% of the citys population left the city in the span of days. The citys reputation as a business hub was in tatters and wherever its residents had fled to, they were considered pariahs with misinformation rife about the nature of the outbreak.
Two years later, however, the Indian National Trust for Architectural and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) declared Surat as the second cleanest city in India after Chandigarh.
Wait, how did that happen? The answer lies in the efforts of Suryadevara Ramachandra Rao, a 1978-batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service popularly known as Rao Saheb, who in 1995 was posted as the citys municipal commissioner.
Heres how one man changed the face of the city, transformed the mindset of its residents and created a legacy of excellence in urban governance.
SR Rao (image courtesy YouTube)
Pressure From The Word Go!
Upon taking office on 3 May 1995, the pressure was on for Rao. Speaking to Outlook magazine in 1996, he said, “Bureaucratically, it was a suicide posting.

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