Shahid Iqbal Choudhary grew up in a hilly district of Jammu and Kashmir where he often dealt with the issues that flooding could bring.There are several cases of deaths due to flooding in rivulets or nallas which had no footover bridges. Several kids who had to cross these nallas to go to schools had lost their lives. Thus, when he took charge as an IAS officer, he decided to take the issue up and transform lives.
In the last four years, the officer who now serves as DC Srinagar has built 320 bridges in vulnerable villages in Kashmir, thus providing connectivity to thousands of people and school kids. Apart from reducing travel distance, the initiative has drastically brought down loss of lives in floods.
The mountain bridges were built using technology from DRDO and generated more than 43,000 days of employment for the locals.
In 2016, when the flash floods in Leh caused damage to lives and property, the IAS officer helped the reconstruction of 600 homes in four months to save the people from the harsh winters.
Choudhary has also been undertaking several development projects in the region to tackle terrorism in liberated areas. He was the brainchild behind establishing the first rural BPO to provide employment to educated youth in Bandipora, the northernmost district of Kashmir.
The BPO has provided employment to 242 youth. This model is now being replicated across all districts in Kashmir. He has won 4 National awards for his contribution to the development of Jammu and Kashmir.
He says,“Interact with the people you are serving, identify the issues that grieve them and keep your solutions simple but long term and effective and this is what he follows everyday.
Kashmir is proud to have him as the DC of Srinagar and he is a role model to the youth of Kashmir.
