An officer with a human touch

Maharashtra's first woman State Chief Election Commissioner and retired IAS officer Neela Satyanarayan passed away battling COVID-19. A no nonsense bureaucrat, she was a patient listener, willing to solve problems. She was a writer, poet and thinker and an officer who tried her best to do justice to all her postings.

As Principal Secretary Textile during the first Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government, led by Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, she handled contentious issues related to textile mill lands. Despite the pressure, she took a firm stand that the workers affected by closure of mills must get justice. However, while doing so, she urged that the city's development must not be hampered.

She had the courage to tell the CM and ministers that if the government fails to attend to the problems of textile mill workers, it may face adverse consequences. She never feared to file her observations. The saffron government had set up more than three committees, including the Charles Correa committee, to study the mill land issue and suggest recommendations that would not only benefit mill owners but its workers as well.

As the director general of information and public relations, she made every effort to increase connection between the various government departments and the press. As the secretary of women and child welfare, she was instrumental in the launch of key empowerment and welfare projects in the state.

When she was the additional chief secretary of revenue, she interacted regularly with former revenue minister Narayan Rane. Although Rane, being an able administrator, had full command over his department, Satyanarayan was courageous to tell her boss that she would not succumb to pressure but write on the files what is permitted as per the stipulated norms. During her tenure as additional CS, she received bouquets from ruling and opposition members for redressal of grievances keeping the public interest in mind.

Although termed as a side posting,

Satyanarayan, as the MD Film

City Development Corporation, emerged as a strong advocate of film and cultural development. Her role there subsequently came quite handy to pen scripts for Hindi and Marathi films.

As an additional chief secretary of the home department, Madam Satyanarayan paid attention to the modernisation of the police force, increased rapport between the police and the public and ensured speedy trials of undertrials languishing in jail for a long time.

After she was retired, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government appointed her as the first woman State Chief Election Commissioner. Although it was completely a different job, she established good rapport with all the political parties for free, fair and smooth elections to the local bodies. After her tenure was over, she devoted her time to writing and for her family. As an officer sensitive to current issues, she penned articles for the newspaper and also authored books and poems. Recently, she wrote a small book on her experience of

the lockdown.