Raju Narayana Swamy

Background

He was born in a middle-class family. His father, who was a Professor of Mathematics, played a key role in shaping him up. His mother was a college professor. Raju Narayana Swamy obtained his Computer Science Graduation from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He stood the first rank - in the State of Kerala in Class 10 Examination SSLC (1983), Pre-degree Examination (MGU-1985) and Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) (1990 – in terms of percentile) conducted for admission to postgraduate engineering courses in India. He attained 10th rank in IIT Joint entrance examination for admissions into the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technologies. In 1991, he obtained the first rank in Civil Services Examination and entered the Indian Administrative Service. In August 2011, he was awarded a doctorate degree by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. He is currently in the process of securing his second Phd from the prestigious Gujarat National Law University. He is the first Bureaucrat to complete all the 10 courses conducted by the National Institute of Disaster Management New Delhi in association with the World Bank Institute in First Rank. However, he is more known for his strict stand against corrupt politicians and officials.

Career

He has held several posts including District Collector of five districts, Director of Fisheries and of Collegiate Education, Managing Director, Marketfed and Commissioner in Civil Supplies Department of Kerala before being removed allegedly for trying to expose corruption. His Anti-Corruption Campaign started from the very first day of his Service, which earned him flaks from Political Bosses and led to 20 transfers in last 22 years. He had to pay huge price for his War against Corruption. He was made to go on forced leave as managing director of the state Marketing Federation (MARKETFED) after refusing to play ball with the chairman, a senior politician. He was shunted to sinecure assignments, even posted to work under junior officers.

As District Collector, Trichur, he single-handedly widened the Pattalom Road and the Inner Ring Road.

Once he refused permission to a real-estate businessman to fill up a large paddy farm — it would have deluged some 50 poor village homes nearby with waste from the adjacent government hospital.

In his district it was a practice to collect crores of rupees for earthen bunds meant for poor farmers, but which were never constructed. A bill for rupees 8 crores came up before Narayanaswamy. He inspected the bund. He found it very weak and said that he will pass the bill after the rainy season to ensure that the bund served the purpose. As expected the earthen bund was too weak to stand the rain and it disappeared in the rain. But he created a lot of enemies for saving 8 crores public money.

After the V. S. Achuthanandan led LDF government came into power in Kerala, Narayana Swamy was appointed as the collector of Idukki district When Kerala Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan wanted encroachers in Munnar driven out, Narayanaswamy was one of the CM’s three handpicked men. Even senior CPM leaders objected to his choice, but VS stood his ground. During his investigations, he inquired into an alleged illegal land deal by the son and daughter of the then public works minister T. U. Kuruvilla who had to resign over the issue. It was the first time in the history of the country that a Minister had to resign on the report of an IAS officer.He also proceeded against the former minister P. J. Joseph and his relatives regarding their alleged illegal landholdings.

In 2007, Kerala Public Works Minister T U Kuruvilla was forced to resign following an Investigation by Raju Narayana Swamy. Kuruvilla’s children had taken Rs 6.5 crore from an NRI businessman promising to sell him some prime land, soon suspected to have encroached. The sale did not happen, the NRI went public while Kuruvila maintained everything was above board. Narayanaswamy, the then Idukki District Collector, probed the land the Minister’s children were to sell: he reported that a good part of the land they purveyed was government land, some suspected benami. Kuruvila could only agree to quit. He also proceeded against a former minister P. J. Joseph and his relatives regarding their alleged illegal landholdings. “In my service life I have always fought corruption. We could be sidelined but officers should not get demoralized. The public applause we get for taking strong stand on issues is what keeps us going’’ says Raju. Since 2007 he has been shunted to various insignificant posts and has thereafter been consistently been picked up by the Election Commission of India for 26 election duties in 16 States across the country. During the 2012 Uttar Pradesh election, he was roll observer for all the six districts in Kanpur division. He was the Agriculture Production Commissioner and Principal Secretary of Kerala state government. As per the press release dated 31-05-2017, Raju Narayana Swamy has been appointed as the Principal Secretary of Official Language Department, Government of Kerala.

Author And Awards

Swamy has 26 books to his credit, the latest being one on popular science – Nano Muthal Nakshatram Vare. He won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for a travelogue, Santhimantram Muzhangunna Thazvarayil. He has also won the Bhima Gold Medal and Kunhunni Award (both for children’s literature) and the prestigious Homi Bhabha Fellowship (in Cyber Law). His other works include Niram Mangiya Vazhithara, which is a translation of The Road of Lost Innocence, the English version of the French memoirs by Somaly Mam.

At present, he handles two columns for children - one in Balarama(popular science) and the other in Digest (Indian Constitution for Children).

He was one of the recipients of the fourth IRDS awards for public service, awarded by the Lucknow-based Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS). In August 2011, he was awarded a doctorate degree by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. He has undergone trainings at prestigious institutions both in India (IIMs etc.) and abroad (ENA, Paris, Canada etc. ). He has also published more than 150 research papers in national and international journals of repute in areas as diverse as e-governance to intellectual property rights and is a recognized Ph. D. guide of many universities.