SURAT, January 28: It's not always that you associate awards with stinking slime or mountains of garbage. At least, not a civilian honour like the Padmashri. But when when former Surat Municipal Commissioner Suryadevra Ramchandra Rao - responsible for transforming the city that saw the resurgence of plague into an eminently livable town - was announced as a Padmashri awardee this year, no one seemed to have been taken by surprise.This makes him probably the only municipal commissioner to be honoured with a Padmashri. The frail figure, whose 30-month tenure saw this South Gujarat town in the grip of an unprecedented sanitary revolution, doesn't walk Surat's now clean streets any more, but has managed to ensure that the bustling city will live up to the `second-cleanest-in-the-country' tag given to it by the Bangalore-based Indian National Trust for Culture and Heritage.The award is a culmination of a series of honours that the IAS officer has received, not to mention national and internationalpublicity. Setting standards for other municipal corporations in the country, his stint saw the Surat Municipal Corporation flooded with visitors wanting to emulate what came to be known as the Surat Experiment, and Rao himself getting offers from several quarters.He had taken over as Municipal Commissioner at a most inopportune time - in May 1995, within eight months of Surat's grisly brush with the Black Death. He was dead against the Surat posting, doggedly following up his demand for a transfer. He was fed up with field jobs, he said, and would be content pushing files.His deeds and string of measures however belied his displeasure. He was seen standing in ankle-deep mud and insisting that other civic officers do the same. Soon, the civic top brass was with him, in the field at 7 am and discussing ideas and measures over several meetings.Rao had inherited a daunting legacy; a demoralised staff of 15,000 and Surat's health record it accounted for 50 per cent of the total epidemic victims inGujarat. Reluctant Surtis were made to fall in line when he imposed an ``administrative charge '' for nuisance, taking recourse to a provision in the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act. A flurry of demolitions saw roads being widened and people voluntarily pulling down their own properties.Accused of emptying the cash-rich coffers of the SMC, he said, ``What is the fun of having your coffers full, when half the city does not get piped water, lacks sewage facility and has streets clogged with garbage?'' Today, occupancy in civic and government hospitals is down and private practitioners are feeling the pinch.Finally out of Surat, Rao is now on election duty in Bihar but has managed to hog the limelight, in absentia. He has been replaced by an equally competent officer, S Jagadeesan, who refused to be bogged down by expectations from a large population. Rather, he went a step ahead, demolishing properties belonging to influential builders in upscale areas.When asked about his greatestachievement during his Surat assignment, Rao said,`` Surtis have learned to demand better civic services.'' An example every city in the country would do well to follow.
