Conservancy worker’s daughter to helm municipality as Commissioner

Chennai: For three decades, as a conservancy worker, her father ensured that a main road in Mannargudi municipality in the Cauvery Delta region was clean. On Monday, 30-year-old S Durga flaunted her appointment as the Commissioner of Tiruthuraipoondi municipality after having passed the Tamil Nadu Public Services Commission (TNPSC) exam with flying colours.

Now, Durga will oversee conservancy workers among numerous staff in keeping the town, she is in charge of, clean and safe for its citizens. Hailing from a community notified as Scheduled Tribe (ST), the odds were stacked against Durga in achieving her father’s dream, which was to see her as a government officer.

The only regret is Durga’s father, Shekhar, is no more to see his daughter achieve what he always wanted her to.

“Had he been alive, he would have been jumping with joy as I prepare to assume charge as a Municipal Commissioner of a town very close to my native Mannargudi,” Durga said. The 30-year-old said she studied in government institutions throughout her life and utilized study centres run by the state even while preparing for the competitive exams.

“I am proud that I am a product of this system,” she said. Shekhar, who worked as a conservancy worker of Mannargudi Municipality for 35 years, died early this year due to ill health.

Durga said that not just her father, but her grandfather was also a conservancy worker, and she wanted to shed off the tag for her children, at least. That’s when she decided to crack the TNPSC exams, at the prodding of her father, and appeared for the exams for the first time in 2016, but she couldn’t clear the test.

“My father kept motivating me and I cracked the exam only this year. This wouldn’t have been possible without him. My dream was to head a municipality, where my father had worked as an ordinary worker,” Durga said, adding that her husband, who works as a temporary staff in the Taluk Office in Madhuranthagam near Chennai, also encouraged her.

After handing over the appointment order to Durga, Chief Minister M K Stalin said he was happy to hear the heart-warming story of the young woman.

“She is a classic example that education possesses immense power to advance an entire generation. Education is the only asset that can never be snatched away from anyone,” Stalin wrote on X.