Visakhapatnam: Meet 2013-batch IAS officer Dr G Lakshmisha! His is an inspiring tale of rags to reckoning. As Great Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Commissioner, he wishes to make Andhra Pradesh’s iconic city a neat and clean urban habitat. “Sanitation will be my first priority,” he told reporters after taking over as GVMC Commissioner on Saturday.
After taking over the charge, he met Mayor G Hari Venkata Kumari and discussed various developmental works and projects to be taken up by the GVMC. He has also met with local MP Y Vijayasai Reddy, Minister for Tourism M Srinivasa Rao and MLA from Gajuwaka T Nagireddy and discussed various projects, which will help in giving a new identity and adding value to the city’s urban milieu.
What makes Dr Lakshmisha a source of inspiration for others is his struggle to become a member of India’s coveted ‘Steel Frame.’ According to media reports, his parents were extremely poor and used to toil a lot to support the family. Hailing from a remote village of Holugundanahalli in Karnataka, his mother Lakshmamma and father Gangamuthaiah were struggling like anything to cope up with their acute poverty.
But he did not give up his studies. He even sold newspapers in the morning to earn Rs 300 per month. He did B Sc Agriculture and moved to do M Sc in Allahabad after getting a fellowship. From Allahabad, he moved to Delhi and did Ph D after getting a senior research fellowship.
As a scientist, he was engrossed in his assignments and routine work but his friends encouraged him to try Civil Services. In 2009, he could not crack the county’s most challenging examination but in 2010 he was selected for the Indian Forest Service, which he did not join. The year 2013 got him 275th rank and Andhra Pradesh cadre. Rest is history! Where there is a will, there is a way! /BI/
