A new template of development

Bijapur, along with Sukma and Dantewada, a hotbed of left wing extremism, is showing the way forward by leveraging several discretionary and budgetary allocations through innovations and convergence

“What you do in Bijapur will decide where you are headed in life,” Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh told Ayyaj Tamboli while posting him as the Collector about two years ago. For Ayyaj, the son of a government school teacher and an Anganwadi worker from rural Maharashtra, becoming the first doctor from his community may have been a great achievement in itself; he doubled it with his selection into the IAS. In his role as collector, Bijapur — a district with a population of just 255,000 deep inside Bastar — he has truly experienced the defining moment of his life.