PEOPLES IAS OFFICER

People's IAS officer” S.R. Sankaran 

He played a proactive role in formulating pro-poor policies and devoted his life for welfare of SCs, STs

COMMITTED CRUSADER  S. R. Sankaran (76), a former senior IAS officer, widely known as ‘an ideal people's IAS officer' for the proactive role he played in formulating pro-poor policies,He was a bachelor who devoted his life for the welfare of Schedules Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A personification of simple living, honesty and integrity, unassuming but strong, modest yet firm and affable, the diminutive civil servant was a role model who showed what an IAS officer could do for the marginalised sections of society.
Sankaran held wide ranging posts in Central and State governments including Principal Secretary of Social Welfare in AP, Secretary, Union Ministry of Rural Development and Chief Secretary of Tripura. He was among the seven IAS officers kidnapped by the then People's War Group at Gurthedu in East Godavari district.
High point
The high point of his career was the abolition of bonded labour, special component plan for SCs & STs and earmarking resources for weaker sections in the rural development programmes.


S. R. Sankaran After retirement in 1992, he shifted to a modest apartment in busy Punjagutta area and continued to fight for the rights of the poor, sharing his pension with SC/ ST students.
Lifetime mission
It became his lifetime mission to demystify the left-wing ideology and try and bring about a meeting point. His initiative, Committee of the Concerned Citizens strove hard through mediatory efforts to find sustainable solution to social turmoil.
As one of the Commissioners appointed by the Supreme Court, he would argue how the State had the constitutional obligation to eliminate hunger and secure right to food to the people.