During the terrible pre-monsoon floods that disturbed regular life in Assam, photographs of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer with filthy feet but smiling as she stands on a boat beside another woman in Cachar district are becoming popular on social media.
The catastrophic flood has claimed 30 lives in the northeastern state so far, with over 5 lakh people affected across the state’s 12 districts.
Though the situation in flood-hit Assam has improved slightly, the Army, Indian Air Force (IAF), Assam Rifles, various paramilitary forces, the National Disaster Response Force, and the State Disaster Response Force, Civil Defence, and district administrations continue to work around the clock to rescue those who have become stranded.
Amidst all of this, a 2009-batch IAS officer took to Twitter and tweeted an image of the officer, Keerthi Jalli, who is directing the rescue efforts in flood-ravaged Assam’s Cachar region. Awanish Sharan commended her efforts while posting her image, tweeting: “Keerthi Jalli IAS, Deputy Commissioner Cachar,” followed by a folded hand emoji.
Sharan’s tweet quickly went popular on Twitter, and other individuals applauded Jalli for her outstanding effort. At the time of publication, the tweet had received over 3,500 retweets and over 45,000 likes.
This is not the first time the IAS official has been praised for her unusual job. Even in 2020, she received a lot of attention when she refused to take even a day off for her wedding and instead had the groom fly in for the ceremony.
Jalli informed her family and friends that she would be unable to attend her wedding in Hyderabad because she was leading the fight against the coronavirus epidemic from the front lines in Assam’s Cachar region.
Jalli returned to work the day after her marriage and paid a visit to the Silchar Medical College Hospital to assess the hospital’s facilities in the midst of an increase of Covid-19 cases in the Barak valley.
The IAS official from the 2013 batch is the Deputy Commissioner of Assam’s Cachar district.
Jalli was well-known at her previous job in neighbouring Hailakandi for her outstanding efforts in healthcare, women’s welfare, and community cohesion.