AN ABLE ADMINISTRATOR

V. Ramachandran IAS (Rtd)
Vice Chairman, State Planning Board and Former Chief Secretary

Sri. T.K.Divakaran rose from very humble beginnings to be a senior political leader and an able administrator. He could identify the core of any problem objectively, consider in a positive way various alternatives, and finally adopt and implement the most practicable one, without harping about an ideal solution. His calm temperament, courteous behaviour and basic public-spiritedness were great assets, which won for him many admirers and friends.

I first came into contact with him in 1962, when I was District Collector, Quilon and Sri. Divakaran became Municipal Chairman, Quilon. Those were early years of planned development. In the programmes for the industrially important Quilon Town, Sri Divakaran took very great interest. I was a young officer below thirty years of age. The T.C area was not used to such young persons being collectors and I was called the ‘Baby Collector’ – sometimes fondly and sometimes mockingly – by the local press and press corps. Sri. Divakaran always treated me with unfailing courtesy and extended full cooperation and support to me.

The construction of an overbridge across the railway lines near the Clock Tower in the heart of the town was a long-standing demand of the public and the business community. But the Municipality was not only passive but was ambivalent, because the overbridge would completely block the view of the Municipal Office Building. When I discussed the issue with Sri. Divakaran, he quietly asked me to do what I could to get the bridge constructed in larger public interest. I was nominated at the time as a member of the Railway Consultative Committee and I got the bridge sanctioned, despite the rumblings of many councillors.

Sri. Divakaran gave positive support to schemes for moderating price rise. After the stable price decade of the 1950s, prices had started going up. Those were also the years of acute rice shortage and rationing. In the proper implementation of rationing in the municipal area, in checking prices in hotels and in introducing the standard meal scheme for the benefit of workers, Sri. Divakaran took active interest and always acted in larger interests.

Leaders of that time were not angels, but they had a respect for rule of law and a sense of public spiritedness. There were temporary and permanent encroachments on roads and the cases taken under the Land Conservancy Act were pending for years. Timber merchants (those days Quilon was a major centre for timber trade) were using both sides of the narrow roads for stocking timber. It was a danger to safe traffic and to walking. When the timber lords didn’t heed appeals to remove the logs, there was a hue and cry through the press. But Sri. Divakaran supported the steps and in private, appreciated them. Many such examples were there, but many years have passed and one does not remember the details at this distance of time. Suffice to say that Sri. Divakaran, despite problems, always stood by larger public interest. Young political workers should learn from this. One wonders what has happened to the public spiritedness of political leaders these days. From passive condonation of violation of law, many of them have passed through active support of such violations to active collusion with breakers of law (witness encroachments and illegal buildings in cities and towns, location of hazardous industries in residential areas, distribution of illicit liquor, etc.).


V. Ramachandran (District Collector) addresses the inaugural function of the Standard Meal Scheme at Asan Tea Shop, Chinnakkada in the presence of Rev. Dr. Jerome M. Fernandes, Bishop of Quilon and T.K. Divakaran (Kollam Municipal Chairman)

The years as Chairman of a big municipality prepared Sri. Divakaran for his ministerial responsibilities later in 1960s. He was lucky in this, like Sri. Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhai Patel who were Mayors of municipal corporations. After the 1960s, the local bodies started atrophying due to the centralised planning and the taking over of many municipal functions by state-level Broads/Corporations/Authorities – for example electric supply, water supply and sewerage, housing, slum clearance, road development, etc. It is only now, once again, after the constitution of the 74th Amendment that urban local bodies have an opportunity (not yet utilised) to become effective and self-governing. Things were better in 1960 and Sri. Divakaran benefitted from the administrative experience. He was not catapulted into being an important Minister straight from being an agitator. He knew the responsibilities of public office.

Before going to Delhi in 1962, I was Finance and Planning Secretary and later Chairman State Electricity Board, when Sri. Divakaran was a cabinet member at the State level. Those were days of good financial management and there were no pending payments to contractors and treasury closures which have nowadays become routine events ! Sri. Divakaran managed his charge with competence and responsibility and I had no difficulty in my dealings with him in my capacity as finance and planning secretary. I could sense that he always had a soft corner for me, as did Sri. Baby John.

I was not a very senior officer when I was asked in 1969 to take charge as Chairman, State Electricity Board and resurrect the Idukki hydroelectric project, which had come to a halt and from which the Canadians had left, so also all the contractors. It was a very difficult task. When I asked Sri. Baby John who was Labour Minister and Sri. Divakaran whether they thought the government was keen on the project, Sri Divakaran said that his party was against the politics of negativism and was keen that development projects should go ahead, despite what some Marxist or naxalite leaders might say. Both of them assured me of full support and Sri. Baby John physically spent several hours and days with me in the long negotiations with contractors and labour to rework and rewrite the Agreements. In this matter also, young political workers of the left have to learn from the life of such leaders. One is unable to understand how influential sections of the left could be negative in its approach to change and development. The generation of political leaders to which men like Sri. T.K.Divakaran belonged were change-agents and not status-quoists. They had a dream and a vision. Despite difficulties and stumbling blocks, they stuck to the. We owe them a debt for that.