TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: When Goa along with the rest of the world swooned with emotions, and celebrated Valentines’ Day on Saturday, three couples who are All India Service officers, posted in Goa, put their professional duty before cupid, like any other day.
The two IAS couples – Ameya Abhyankar and Nila Mohanan and Sachin and Shilpa Shinde, and IPS couple Karthik and Priyanka Kashyap ruled out the misconception among many non-Goans that their postings in the State, is anything but susegado.
Sachin-Shilpa Shinde are a couple who have been transferred and holding posts in Goa. Sachin is the South District Collector while Shilpa is the secretary to the Governor.
Ameya Abhyankar is a third generation from a family of IAS and IPS officers. Ameya and Nila Mohanan have been both toppers from their institution in Pune. After clearing all stages to enter into the demanding career, the present Tourism director Ameya, and North Goa Collector Nila met during their training stint in Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy of Administration Mussoorie, now in Uttarakhand, in 2007-08. Belonging to different cadres, did not obstruct their romance, nor their marriage plans.
Ameya explained that during those days, cadres were assigned through ‘lottery system’ and as such the Maharashtra native got into Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre and Nila was assigned the Assam-Meghalaya cadre.
“I soon applied for AGMUT cadre and within three to four months of my probation period in Assam, I was allotted AGMUT. Thereafter both were posted in Arunachal Pradesh for about four and half years. Thereafter we were posted in Delhi for two years and now in Goa,” Nila, the district magistrate, who was in the midst of the Panjim by-election, told Herald.
Postings in the same State was not very easy as in Arunachal Pradesh, where the newly-married couple served as collectors in two separate districts and barely met. “The distance was 400 to 500 kms. We could meet only during holidays or weekends. The distance between their places of postings in Delhi was nonetheless not long,” Nila added.
Similarly, circumstances were not very easy for the young IPS couple Karthik and Priyanka Kashyap who are serving their first posting together after a gap of two and half years of their marriage. Priyanka and Karthik met while training at Sardar Vallabhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad. Priyanka hails from Chandigarh and Karthik from Mangalore.
To add to their woes, neither Karthik’s nor Priyanka’s parent cadre was AGMUT as both were assigned Gujarat and Nagaland cadres respectively.
Through a special provision in the All India Services such officer couples are accommodated in the ‘third cadre’. “We married about three months after our training ended… Since we were posted in two extreme ends of the country, we barely had 10 days for marriage and related ceremonies. We then moved back to Kutch and Dimapur respectively,” Priyanka, the only woman IPS officer in the Goa police, narrated.
After their training from December 2009 till November 2010, they both married in March 2011.
“The initial two and half years were very painful as we hardly got time to spend with each other. In spite of clear guidelines to post officers of All India Services (AIS) cadres, together, it took our system, years to put it on paper. This is our first posting together, in Goa,” Karthik said recounting joyfully.
In Goa, over the last one and half year, the couple heads crucial units, with Priyanka heading the north Goa district as SP and her husband is SP incharge of three units – crime branch, anti narcotics cell and cyber cell.
Unlike the IAS couple Ameya and Nila, Kartik and Priyanka had to run from pillar to post to be allotted a common cadre since their parent cadres had no vacancies. Priyanka tried going to Gujarat but due to administrative reasons she was not taken in and similarly Nagaland too had some administrative issues.
“We got categorized under the newly made ‘deficit cadre rule’ under which we got UT cadre and were sent to Goa. I believe we must be one of the first two or three couples to have been put under ‘deficit cadre’ rule vide third cadre policy,” she recalled.When it comes to work, these officers have no option but to take work home. There is however one exception – Nila, mother of a four-year-old son, who practices a strict policy not to take work home at any cost.
“I have a strict policy not to bring work home. If my work stretches beyond office hours, I prefer sitting in the office and completing it there, rather than getting it home. As a mother, once I am home, I ensure that I give time to my son. I try my best not to bring work home,” she recounted.
But husband Ameya, who also has three additional charges in the State administration and is presently busy preparing for the upcoming Budget session, has no option but to bring part of his work, home.
“I normally don’t like taking work home, but end up doing so. My working hours are about 12 to 14 hours daily, but they stretch further and I prefer thoroughly reading files before taking any decision. This is why I sit with stacks of files late evenings or night,” Ameya disclosed, adding, “It is a part of professional life, but I don’t neglect my family. I balance time between personal and professional life. I do spend quality time with them.”
For the IPS couple, it is work round the clock. “The police profession is such that we are at work 24×7,” Priyanka said, as husband Karthik nodded in agreement.
