G. Asok Kumar, is a 1991 batch IAS officer of Telangana Cadre, who superannuated from Government Service on 29 February 2024 while working as Special Secretary and Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga, responsible for implementing Namami-Gange, a flagship program of Government of India to clean River Ganga and its tributaries. During his tenure, under the guidance of PM Modi, Namami Gange scaled new heights, made significant progress & won many accolades. It was recognized by the UN as one of the top 10 “World Eco- Restoration flagships” at the CoP 15 of Biodiversity at Montreal on 13th December 2022. This was done by UNEP and FAO led UN Decade after examining over 160 eco restoration programs across the world, examined on "their effectiveness & success to halt environmental degradation, reverse environmental degradation, that too with people’s active participation", et (G.Asok Kumar also was concurrently holding the post of Project Director for the "National River Conservation Directorate", setup for conservation of other major rivers in the country and the charge of the Chairman, Brahmaputra Board, as well.)
Though popular as "the Rain-man of India" for the countrywide "Catch-The-Rain" campaign he led to save and conserve rainwater, he has left his imprint in many diverse sectors like water and sanitation, infrastructure, urban planning, civil aviation, power, sports, welfare, health, education and IT etc also.
As a part of the Catch-The-Rain campaign, he pioneered the concept of “Jal Shakti Kendras” (JSK) -a one stop resource and information centre for all water related data and activities- in all the 700+ districts in the country. Shubrata” his initiative for construction of over 1,40,000 pucca Individual Sanitary Latrines for households and in 1000 schools in Nizamabad district in 2001-03 period and Providing Daily drinking water supply to over 3 million people in Hyderabad in 2008 are also some of his successful initiatives in water and sanitation sector.
In Hyderabad he initiated/completed many infrastructure projects like the 162 Kms 8 lane Outer Ring Road: the 90 MGD Krishna Phase-2 Drinking Water project; the 90 MGD Godavari Drinking Water Project etc.
As Principal Secretary BC Welfare Department, he started 119 English Medium Residential Schools under BC Welfare Education society in all the 119 Assembly segments in Telangana on 12th June 2017.
The drive against child labor he started in Veilpur Mandal of Nizamabad, which led to declaring it as the first Child labor free mandal on 2 Oct 2001, is sustained now, even after 22 years.
While serving in the central government as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, he was instrumental in setting -up India’s Aircraft Accidents Investigation Bureau; headed a committee whose recommendations resulted in vastly improved facilities for Passengers with Reduced mobility and also played a key role in helping to revive the ailing aviation industry when it was going through a very bad patch.
As Director in Ministry of Power, he was in charge of R-APPRD the programs to modernize the power distribution entities and reduce their Aggregate a Commercial & Technical losses and RGGVY, the program for rural electrification. He is also the founder President of India Smart Grid Forum.
Mr G. Asok Kumar is the winner of many awards, including the “Jal-Mitra” award from the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2002, the first TEX (Telangana Excellence) Award of the Government of Telangana for "Outstanding work done in Public Administration in 2018; the "Governor’s Award for Excellence - 2023" for “outstanding contributions in Public Services” and the Skoch Award for "Public Service” etc
As an appreciation of his services, there is a 190 acre lake Asok Sagar in Nizamabad District of Telangana and a village Asok Nagar in YSR Kadapa district, of Andhra Pradesh which are named after him!
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