Smita Sabharwal

Smita Sabharwal (born 19 June 1977), is an Indian Administrative Service Officer of 2001 batch borne to the Telangana cadre. She is popularly known as “Peoples Officer”. She is the first lady IAS officer to be appointed to the Chief Minister’s Office.

Early life and Education

Smita was born in West Bengal. Most of her schooling was done in various parts of the country. Her father, a retired Army officer, Colonel Pranab Das, served in the Indian Army. The last couple of years of school education was from St. Ann’s, Maredpally, Hyderabad. She later graduated in Commerce from St. Francis Degree College.She is one of the youngest to have cracked the Union Public Service Commission exam securing All India 4th rank and opted for the IAS.

Career

After completing the administrative training in Lal Bahadur Shastri, National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, she was trained in Adilabad district in her probationary days.

Her first independent charge was as Sub Collector, Madanapally, Chittoor which let her gain hands-on experience in Land Revenue Management & District Administration. Thereafter she worked in Rural Development sector as Project Director, DRDA, Kadapa. During her next stint as a Municipal Commissioner, Warangal she introduced "Fund your City" scheme where a large number of public utilities such as Traffic Junctions, Foot-overbridges, Bus-stops, Parks were created with Public-Private partnership(PPP).Later she served as Deputy Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Visakhapatnam, and also as Joint Collector of Kurnool and Joint collector of Hyderabad.

In April, 2011 she took charge as District Collector, Karimnagar district where she made significant contribution in the Health and Education sector. The health initiative to improve institutional deliveries in the public sector popularly known as “Ammalalana” was started and successfully implemented in the district and today serves as a role model for many health initiatives of ‘high risk pregnancy management targeting, IMR and MMR’ in NRHM of Government of India. This initiative was also nominated as one of the best initiatives for Prime Minister’s award for excellence in public administration.

With the help of Public Representatives, Karimnagar Town underwent a facelift in the form of wider roads, scientifically planned traffic junctions, Bus-stops, Toilets and other public utilities. Karimnagar district was awarded the best district in PM's 20 Point Programme for 2012-2013. She also innovated a programme named as "Voter Panduga" to increase voting percentage.

She also served as District Collector of Medak during the General Elections 2014 and successfully conducted free and fair polls registering a high polling turn out.

She is known popularly as people’s officer and is known to use latest developments in technology to her advantage, especially in implementing Government Programmes on field. Monitoring of Government doctors through skype has completely changed the scenario in the public health sector. Performance monitoring of Government schools through specially designed software has made Karimnagar & Medak Districts stand top in the state during her tenure.

Awards

• Indian Express Devi Award - 2015, for Innovation and Dynamism
• e-India (e-Health Category) Government Digital Initiative – 2013
• Chief Minister’s Award for best district in 20 Point Flagship Programme in 2011-12.
• Chief Minister’s Award for best district in 20 Point Flagship Programme in 2012-13.
• Recipient of “Platinum Award” worth Rs.10.00 Lakhs under District Category sponsored by Information Technology & Communication Department for the best e-Governance initiatives taken up in the district for the year 2012-13.
• Nominated for Prime Minister’s award under individual category for excellence in public administration in best district initiative “Ammalalana” programme from erstwhile united Government of Andhra Pradesh.

• "Devi Awards 2015". Indian Express. Retrieved 21 Aug 2015. 
• "Contribution to family health welfare". elets online. Retrieved 18 May 2015. 
• "Contributions to Karimnagar". Governance. Retrieved 18 May 2015. 
• "e-governance award". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 May 2015.