Sunday, December 25 2005 14:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Nagapattinam: One is a veterinary surgeon, the other a communications engineer. But what unites these two civil servants from diverse disciplines is their resolve to cut through red tape at the hour of crisis and demonstrate the 'human face' of bureaucracy.

Meet J Radhakrishnan and Gagandeep Singh Bedi, the District Collectors of Nagapattinam and Cuddalore, the two worst affected districts in the December 26 tsunami who have set a precedent in disaster management and rehabilitation, earning accolades from local residents.

Instead of remaining just two names in the country's long list of bureaucrats, these two IAS officers have stood apart by being always accessible to the tsunami-affected and addressing their problems with compassion.

"I initially came to Nagapattinam as a rescue team leader, the day when the tsunami struck, from neighboring Thanjavur, where I was the District Collector. What lay before us was the challenging task of removing nearly 3,000 bodies which law strewn all over the beach," says Radhakrishnan recollecting the fateful day a year ago.

"It is a sight that can put off the will of even the most determined person. The people had all lost their hope and were crying before us for help. There was nothing we could do but help them with the best of our capabilities," he says.

More than 6,000 people had died in Nagapattinam district alone, around half of the total districts in India- and nearly 20,000 houses were destroyed in the killer tsunami, which also robbed thousands of livelihoods.'

For around a week Radhakrishnan and his team worked almost round the clock, overseeing removal of bodies and debris strewn all over. At the same time he also concentrated on providing immediate shelter and solace to thousands of survivors, who had ran away from the coast to inland areas.

"The situation had reached a boiling point. Any wrong move from the part of the administration would have resulted in the people turning violent, hampering all relief work. We had to be very careful at that stage. However, we were successful in conveying to the people that we were with them in the hour of crisis and that we really wanted to help them recover from the tragedy," he says.

Taking his ability to strike an immediate rapport with the people, a few days later, Radhakrishnan was appointed District Collector of Nagapattinam, with the State Government giving a free hand to him and his team to handle the relief and rehabilitation efforts. "Instead of adopting a unilateral approach, we sought the help of NGOs who had come out in large numbers to help in the relief process. We knew that this mammoth exercise would succeed only with active Government-private partnership," he says.

However, as a true team-man, Radhakrishnan says whatever little he could do in the past one year was due to a 'dedicated and honest team' that the State Government provided him with.