Puri Collector and District Magistrate Balawant Singh has been recognised as one of the best performing Collectors in the country. He has clinched the 7th rank among 50 performing IAS officers in a selection done by the Centre on the basis of report card during a year.
In his reaction, Singh said, “Love and affection of people is more important than anything else.”
Hailed from a farmer family of Kalewa village under Barmer district of Rajasthan, the bureaucrat having a full name of ‘Balwant Singh Mahecha’ joined in Puri in a troubled time of May 6, 2019 when Cyclone Fani had completely ravaged the pilgrim city a week ago. He successfully handled the post-cyclone situations brining lives to near-normal in a month or so.
Further, he faced another challenge of evictions of mutts and lodgings within a 75-meter radius of the Jagannath Temple for a heritage corridor project. And amid the Covid-19 pandemic, he managed this year’s Rath Yatra without public participation in compliance of the stringent guidelines of the Supreme Court.