Why officers like M Akhaya, the current Director General of Fire Services in Odisha, are an asset to the state and the nation, especially during challenging times.
Siddhartha Tripathy
There is a common saying that a team is only as good as its leader. There may be cases of exception, but this notion is practically a universal truth as it seems to hold true – far more often than not – in the world of sports, business or governance.
When M Akhaya became the new Director General of Fire Services in early March this year, at a time when India was just about beginning to see the rise of the deadly second wave of Covid-19, the 1988-batch IPS officer had said that he would focus on reducing response time to emergency calls, expediting automation and modernization of the Fire Services department and making its services more citizen-friendly, among other things.
Considering his stellar service record – he held several important positions in Odisha, was on a Central deputation as Chief Vigilance Officer at the Department of Telecommunications, and bagged the Governor’s Medal as best Superintendent of Police, Odisha, President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service and President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service over the past three decades – expectations of him were high.
Now, a little over two and half months since he assumed charge of the Fire department, which has coincided with the period when Odisha began facing the roughest part of its battle with the second coronavirus wave, it appears that M Akhaya has not only met but exceeded those expectations.
“The new DG Fire is an exemplary exponent not only of the Naveen Patnaik government’s 5T governance model and Mo Sarkar initiative, but also of the Chief Minister’s zero-tolerance-for-corruption policy,” said a prominent political observer of the state, who did not wish to be named.
“Apart from the many processes he has put in place to encourage his department personnel to operate at their highest level, he has also been ensuring that the right kind of officers are placed at the most important posts, which is in keeping with his prime goal of making the Fire department more accessible and helpful to the public,” he noted.
These efforts, and their consequent benefits, have not been lost on the general public either.
“DG Fire M Akhaya is making sure that corruption has no place in his department. It is because of Naveen babu and great officers like him that, even during this dark period of rising Covid cases, deaths, lockdown and shutdown, we continue to have trust in the system,” said a businessman from Cuttack.
This trust will hold Odisha in good stead, especially during trying times such as these. That is because there is a universal truth about trust: The world runs on it.
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