 "The man who felt the heat of a sartorial slip")
An exasperated senior bureaucrat stormed into the office of Raipur Development Authority (RDA) in Chhattisgarh’s capital a few years ago. He walked up to the CEO and demanded to see the details of the notice slapped on him for recovery of a surcharge on property tax. The surcharge turned out to be the interest on an unpaid earlier installment. Amit Kataria, then the CEO of RDA, courteously drew his senior’s attention to the screen of his computer, which displayed the list of people against whom similar surcharge amounts were pending. “Sir, see the list,” he said.
Earlier, anyone with a bit of clout would have arranged things to avoid paying any interest. In fact, in such cases the junior officials would not even have dared to calculate the dues. But software developed in RDA now prevents such acts, and all calculations are transparent. Kataria, who was CEO of RDA in 2010-11, refused to exempt his senior officer and got him to clear his dues.
With measures such as these, RDA, which earlier collected around Rs 2 crore in surcharge amounts, now gets Rs 30 crore every year. Once in straitened circumstances even to pay its employees regularly, the civic body recorded an excess of income over expenditure during the period that Kataria headed it.
The Chhattisgarh government has reprimanded him: “We have noticed that you failed to wear the ceremonial dress and wore sunglasses when you received the Prime Minister, which was not in keeping with Rule 3(1) of the All India Service (Conduct) Rules 1968.” The rule makes no mention of a dress code but says: “Every member of the service shall at all times maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty and shall do nothing which is unbecoming of a member of the service.”
Since Independence, the dress code for IAS officials has undergone periodic changes. While it was once the sherwani, it changed to a bandhgala suit and then to a safari suit with standing collar. But, says Sushil Kumar Trivedi, a retired IAS officer, wearing a formal dress on occasions such as Kataria found himself in is only a convention and not the rule. He adds, however, that a shirt exposes the neck and chest and is, therefore, considered to be against the decorum and protocol required of an IAS officer.
But for his sartorial slip, Kataria has a good administrative track record. He entered the civil services after completing his bachelor’s degree course in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. As a district administrator, he quickly won admirers with measures he took to streamline processes. “He is an honest official,” says Dilip Jain, a software engineer in Raipur, “and politely hears out everyone when they approach him on any issue.” When he was in RDA, Kataria used to attend to petitioners from villages himself despite having a number of subordinates to do the job, he added.
Rusen Kumar, director of India CSR, recalls that as collector of Raigarh, Kataria had designed the landmark policy for using funds accruing from corporate social responsibility (CSR). He pushed for a more focused use of CSR money than just ploughing it into projects decided by the companies. The state government later implemented the policy across the state.
Kataria refuses to comment on the episode. A message on Whatsapp did the rounds in which the version was that the officer left his house to receive the prime minister in a formal jacket, but had to leave it in his vehicle due to the heat. But Kataria denies having scripted the message.
In the scorching heat of summer, Kataria might have intended to keep the sun at bay by wearing sunglasses and light attire when he received Modi. Little did he realise that he would end up feeling the heat.
Earlier, anyone with a bit of clout would have arranged things to avoid paying any interest. In fact, in such cases the junior officials would not even have dared to calculate the dues. But software developed in RDA now prevents such acts, and all calculations are transparent. Kataria, who was CEO of RDA in 2010-11, refused to exempt his senior officer and got him to clear his dues.
With measures such as these, RDA, which earlier collected around Rs 2 crore in surcharge amounts, now gets Rs 30 crore every year. Once in straitened circumstances even to pay its employees regularly, the civic body recorded an excess of income over expenditure during the period that Kataria headed it.
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This 36-year-old, 2004 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, now the district collector of Jagdalpur, hit the headlines on May 9 for having received Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Raipur in “informal” attire: shirt and sunglasses, instead of the prescribed bandhgala and no eyewear.
The Chhattisgarh government has reprimanded him: “We have noticed that you failed to wear the ceremonial dress and wore sunglasses when you received the Prime Minister, which was not in keeping with Rule 3(1) of the All India Service (Conduct) Rules 1968.” The rule makes no mention of a dress code but says: “Every member of the service shall at all times maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty and shall do nothing which is unbecoming of a member of the service.”
Since Independence, the dress code for IAS officials has undergone periodic changes. While it was once the sherwani, it changed to a bandhgala suit and then to a safari suit with standing collar. But, says Sushil Kumar Trivedi, a retired IAS officer, wearing a formal dress on occasions such as Kataria found himself in is only a convention and not the rule. He adds, however, that a shirt exposes the neck and chest and is, therefore, considered to be against the decorum and protocol required of an IAS officer.
But for his sartorial slip, Kataria has a good administrative track record. He entered the civil services after completing his bachelor’s degree course in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. As a district administrator, he quickly won admirers with measures he took to streamline processes. “He is an honest official,” says Dilip Jain, a software engineer in Raipur, “and politely hears out everyone when they approach him on any issue.” When he was in RDA, Kataria used to attend to petitioners from villages himself despite having a number of subordinates to do the job, he added.
Rusen Kumar, director of India CSR, recalls that as collector of Raigarh, Kataria had designed the landmark policy for using funds accruing from corporate social responsibility (CSR). He pushed for a more focused use of CSR money than just ploughing it into projects decided by the companies. The state government later implemented the policy across the state.
Kataria refuses to comment on the episode. A message on Whatsapp did the rounds in which the version was that the officer left his house to receive the prime minister in a formal jacket, but had to leave it in his vehicle due to the heat. But Kataria denies having scripted the message.
In the scorching heat of summer, Kataria might have intended to keep the sun at bay by wearing sunglasses and light attire when he received Modi. Little did he realise that he would end up feeling the heat.