Sagayam 2016

Sagayam IAS civil servant in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India.

Sagayam passed the civil service examination, but was not chosen as an officer in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He then took the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission exams; this allowed him to join the IAS in 1991 as sub divisional magistrate of the city of Ootacamund, a.k.a. Ooty. In Ooty, Sagayam became embroiled in a dispute with the district collector, whom he accused of favoritism toward the operators of large tea estates. Sagayam was relieved of his post and transferred to another.

By 2000, Sagayam was additional district magistrate in Kanchipuram. There, he closed the Pepsi bottling plant and forbade the sale of its output after dirt was found in several bottles. He also took on the so-called "sand mafia", responsible for unauthorized mining of sand from the bed of the Palar River, a practice that increases erosion and the incidence of flooding. Sagayam ordered a halt to dredging, and declined to rescind his order despite threats of physical violence.

By 2009, Sagayam had been named district collector of the Namakkal district. In that year, he posted details of his personal assets—a bank balance of Rs 7,172 and a house in Madurai, jointly owned with his wife, worth Rs 9 lakh (Rs 900,000)—on the district website. Although this information was on file with the government and thus available for public perusal, Sagayam said, he felt that it should be made more visible to the public. In an interview with the Deccan Herald, he stated that the district collector should set an example of honesty for his subordinates, and that actions like his might tend to rehabilitate the tarnished image of civil servants. Sagayam was the first IAS officer in Tamil Nadu to publicize his financial information

In Namakkal, Sagayam attempted to reform the village administrative officer (VAO) system. He pursued VAOs who lived in cities, far away from the villages that they were charged with overseeing. When VAOs and local politicians attempted to have Sagayam transferred, over 5000 villagers protested the transfer attempt, forcing its withdrawal.