An officer who touched many lives

Jagjit Puri

JNL Srivastava, a civil servant with a career spanning over four decades, passed away on May 3. A mild-mannered man blessed with determination, he devoted his life to the service of the people.

Born in the nondescript village of Patherdewa in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria district on April 26, 1942, and hailing from a marginal farmer’s family with limited means, he made it to the IAS. His studies were supported by merit scholarships at Allahabad University, standing testimony to his brilliance as a student.

The harsh childhood and early schooldays, when he often got just one square meal a day and once swam across the river to reach the Class X examination centre as he did not have money to pay the boatman, prepared him to be tough and become a fighter.

Srivastava was mostly entrusted with challenging responsibilities in keeping with his dependability and abilities. His simple lifestyle and down-to-earth approach earned him an enviable reputation and also endeared him to people wherever he worked.

He met with an accident during the Indo-Pak border joint inspection in the Khemkaran sector in 1967, after which a steel rod was inserted in his right hand. This perhaps further strengthened his resolve to remain a part of the famed ‘steel frame’.

When he was Deputy Commissioner of Sangrur from 1977 to 1980, his simple living earned him the sobriquet of ‘do shirt wale DC saheb’.

Srivastava gained expertise in the fields of agriculture and cooperatives. He retired on December 31, 2002, as Agriculture Secretary with the Union Government. He was on the advisory board of many national and international forums.

His wife, Malti — they were teenagers when they got married — passed away in 2004. After her demise, he immersed himself in social and philanthropic work. He served farmers, women and children, mostly from the lower social stratum, in his native state of Uttar Pradesh through Ishara, an NGO he formed years before he retired. Its projects included ensuring the supply of quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides to farmers at reasonable rates, empowering women through self-help groups and running four intermediate colleges.

In his death, the farmers, women and children in the rural areas, who were the beneficiaries of his various projects, have lost a true social worker and a hand that always blessed.