Raju Narayana Swamy


Raju Narayana Swamy is an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. He was District Collector and District Magistrate of five districts in Kerala. He also served as Agriculture Production Commissioner and Principal Secretary of the Government of Kerala. As of March 2019, he was prematurely repatriated from the post of Chairman of the Coconut Development Board, where he have detected multiple corruption cases. He is known as an anti-corruption crusader and has been transferred 20 times in the past 22 years. He is called the "Ashok Khemka of Kerala".

Early life and education

Raju Narayana Swamy was born in an upper class family. His father, who was a professor of mathematics, played a key role in shaping him up. His mother was also a college professor.
Raju Narayana Swamy was educated at Sacred Heart High School, Changanacherry and at St. Berchmans College, Changanacherry. He obtained his computer science graduation from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He stood first rank in the state of Kerala in Class 10 examination SSLC, pre-degree examination and Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering 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 Technology. 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 ten courses conducted by the National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi in association with the World Bank Institute in first rank. He has completed almost 16 post graduation courses in first rank.
He has undergone training at prestigious institutions both in India and abroad. Narayana Swamy al holds a diploma in cyber law as well as a PG in cyber law, a PG diploma in environmental law and two PG diplomas each from the National Law University, Delhi and the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. 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 PhD guide of many universities.

Career

A Kerala-cadre officer of the 1991 batch he has held several posts including District Collector of five districts, Director of Fisheries and of Collegiate Education, Managing Director, Kerala State Co-operative Marketing Federation 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 a huge price for his war against corruption. He was made to go on forced leave as managing director of the 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 of Thrissur, he single-handedly widened the Pattalom Road and the Inner Ring Road.
He once 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 ₹80 million came up before Narayana Swamy. 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 ₹80 million 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 wanted encroachers in Munnar driven out, Narayana Swamy was one of his three handpicked men. Even senior CPM leaders objected to his choice, but Achuthanandan stood his ground.
In 2007, Narayana Swamy inquired into an alleged illegal land deal by the son and daughter of the then Kerala Public Works minister T. U. Kuruvilla, who was forced to resign following an investigation. Kuruvilla's children had taken ₹65 million from an NRI businessman promising to sell him some prime land, soon suspected to be encroached. The sale did not happen and the businessman went public while Kuruvilla maintained everything was above board. Narayana Swamy, the then Idukki District Collector, probed the land the Minister's children were to sell and reported that a good part of the land they surveyed was government land, some suspectedly benami. Kuruvilla could only agree to quit. 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 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", he said. 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 31 election duties in 16 states across the country. During the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Elections, he was roll observer for all six districts in Kanpur division.
Narayana Swamy was appointed as the chairman of the CDB in August 2018, where he unearthed alleged corruption involving the CDB's Bangalore regional director and technical officer. Both were suspended on the basis of Narayana Swamy's findings. Eventually, he was transferred out on 7 March, after which he went to the Central Administrative Tribunal, where his case is pending. In June 2019, it was reported that a high-level committee of state and central officials had taken the decision to terminate Narayana Swamy. "There are people who are afraid of me", said Narayana Swamy. Responding to the reports, he said he suspected some "serious moves" against him at the meeting. "They know I will unearth corruption and put many behind bars", Narayana Swamy added.

Literary career and awards

Narayana Swamy has twenty-six books to his credit, the latest being one on popular science – Nano Muthal Nakshatram Vare. He won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Travelogue for Santhimantram Muzhangunna Thazvarayil. He has also won the Bhima Gold Medal and Kunhunni Award. 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 and the other in Digest.
In August 2011, he was awarded a doctorate degree by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. He has also won the prestigious Homi Bhabha Fellowship.
He was one of the recipients of the fourth IRDS Award for public service, awarded by the Lucknow-based Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences. He has been awarded the 2018 Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial Award by IIT Kanpur for his professional integrity in upholding human values.