Three civil servants and their unique outreach initiatives

Tirupattur Collector takes English classes, his Vellore counterpart rides a bike to villages in Jawadhu Hills and Ranipet SP does night rounds

A fortnight ago, when Class XI students at the Government Higher Secondary School at Kurusilapattu near Tirupattur were getting ready for the next class, the headmaster introduced a bespectacled man to them. He started teaching English grammar until the bell rang for the next class.

He was not their English teacher. He was Tirupattur Collector Amar Kushwaha, who had visited the school, a polling booth, to check the arrangements for the local bodies elections. “Whenever I visit schools, I never fail to interact with students. If time permits, I also take English classes,” Mr. Kushwaha told The Hindu.

A native of the backward Siddharthnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Kushwaha did his schooling in his village before completing science graduation. He belongs to the 2012 batch of the Indian Administrative Service and started out as a trainee officer in Tiruvallur before becoming Sub-Collector in Sivakasi. At the third mega vaccination camp held on Sunday, Kushwaha’s wife, Shivalika, took her second dose at Mookkannoor village, inspiring tribal villagers.