Sriram Venkitaraman's one-year stint as the Devikulam subcollector was eventful. The young officer rubbed a section of the CPM leaders in Idukki the wrong the way when he led a demolition drive against high-profile squatters on government land. Retracing the career of the doctor-turned-bureaucrat who invited the wrath of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and electricity minister M M Mani for his relentless campaign against encroachment.
Sriram had his eyes set on the Indian Administrative Service even when he scored 770th in the all-Indian medical entrance test to secure an MBBS seat in the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram. He tried to crack the Union Public Service Commission’s elite test twice, without relying on any special coaching. He was the second-rank holder in the 2013 batch. He joined the Indian Administrative Service as an assistant collector in Pathanamthitta district. He worked as an assistant secretary in the ministry of food and public distribution in New Delhi before moving back to Kerala to take charge in Devikulam.
2016 July 22: Takes over as Devikulam subcollector.
2016 October: Launches a drive against encroachments.
2017 March 25: Ruling partners CPM and CPI spar over the eviction drive. CPM leaders call Sriram an overlord. The CPI, which is in charge of the revenue department, stands by him.
April 13: Sriram and colleagues who try to clear encroachment at Devikulam blocked by a crowd led by a CPM local secretary and a panchayat member.
April 14: The revenue department vows to carry on with the eviction drive until reclaiming all government land from squatters in Munnar and surrounding areas.
April 18: The Idukki district administration decides to clear government lands in Munnar, Devikulam, Chinnakanal and Udumbanchola areas with protection.
April 20: About 30 acres of land evicted at Chinnakanal. Revenue authorities pull down a temporary prayer hall and a concrete cross from atop a hill near Suryanelli. The structures were built by a little-known prayer group.
April 21: District collector G.R. Gokul and Sriram pulled up by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and electricity minister M.M. Mani in a high-level meeting in Thiruvananthapuram. Pinarayi warns government officers of strict action if they keep the government in the dark about their actions.
April 22: Mani steps up his tirade against Sriram. He infamously says that the sub collector belongs to a mental asylum and compares the destruction of the cross to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
June 9: Sriram continues with the eviction drive, serving an eviction notice on Lovedale homestay, which he says is built on government land.
June 12: The revenue department decides to evict the home stay and the owner approaches the Kerala High Court.
June 16: An all-party delegation from Munnar meets the chief minister to complain against Sriram. He is accused of violating the decisions made at a meeting chaired by the chief minister regarding the eviction drive.
June 19: Media reports hint at the behind-the-scene lobbying to shift Sriram from Devikulam.
June 22: The revenue department tells the court that the home stay has been operating illegally at the land picked for a village office in Munnar. The department justifies the notice served on the homestay owner, saying the land was immediately required to build the village office.
July 1: The revenue minister stays away from a meeting the chief minister called to discuss the developments in Munnar.
July 4: The court dismissed the petition by the home stay owner. Revenue minister says the government will go ahead with the eviction drive.
July 5: The cabinet decides to shift Sriram out of Devikulam.
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