My Fellow BootanMandian – IAS Babita Kler

 

My Fellow BootanMandian – IAS Babita Kler       

I have been writing in my blogs about such mundane matters like my fellow BootanMandians not that they know me very well or like me or dislike me in my social or civic day to day conduct. Nevertheless, I must confess frankly that whenever some fellow BootanMandian ( a non-descript locality on Nakodar Road now Ambedkar Marg in Jalandhar which is informally said to be the nerve centre of dalits in Doaba and beyond) excels in life, I feel like sharing my joy and wishing he/she all the best in the days to come. There is no other motivation whatsoever. It is a voluntary activity just to keep myself engaged with the community for my own personal satisfaction.

My immediate provocation to write this is the appointment of Babita Kler, my fellow BootanMandian, as the Deputy Commissioner of Fazilka district of Punjab, of course a coveted position. I have not met Babita in person till today. Some years ago when I came back to

Babita Kler IAS

my roots in Jalandhar, I spoke to her on phone with regard to the renewal of my driving license. She was the RTA at Jalandhar. Since then I have been greeting her or sharing my blogs with her, off and on. But this contact mostly remained one sided though her husband Steven Kler, an established businessman and his elder brother former Chief Parliamentary Secretary and MLA Avinash Chander showed some inclination to keep and nurture the connection on social media and otherwise. Babita may also not know that I knew his late father IPS Govind Ram as a passing acquintenance through common friends and his professional colleagues like IPS Joginder Birdi and IPS Sital Ram among others. My friendly concern and interest to felicitate Babita, as a fellow BootanMandian, also emanates from my reverence to Late Seth Kishan Dass, grandfather of Steven and Babita and his family, a pioneer and elite family not only of BootanMandi but also of the community at large. It is a matter of great pride for BootanMandians that one of the greatest sons of India, Babasaheb Ambedkar visited the home, the historic Chubara of Seth Kishan Dass in 1951, and relished Sarson Ka Saag and Makki Ki Roti, the traditional delicacy of Punjab. With this little backdrop, I take this opportunity to wish Babita Kler, an IAS of 2009 batch, all the very best in her new responsibilities as the DC of Fazilka. It is a matter of satisfaction that earlier Babita adorned many high offices; inter alia, Chief Administrator of PUDA, Joint Commissioner of Jalandhar Municipal Corporation, and Secretary to various government departments in Chandigarh. I am confident that she will go much high in the hierarchy in the years to come as she has many more years to serve in the elite IAS.

Sushil Sheemar ITS

 The honour to be the first IFS from Bootan Mandi fell on your humble friend Ramesh Chander. Babita is the first IAS to hold the flag along with my other fellow BootanMandians;  Sushil Sheemar 
ITS as the first Allied services officer and his wife Jaswinder Sheemar as the Additional Session Judge.  Yet other two daughters of Seth Kishan Dass’s immediate and extended family, PCS Anupam Kler daughter of Seth Mool Raj and Judge Pushpa daughter of Ram Nath Kler also two young PCS Allied officers, Pawan and Sunil sons of yet another Kler, Keshava Nand. Many more among my fellow BootanMandians

Amar Nath Ram Retired GM Coal India 

 excelled in different professions like Jagdish Maheyand Manohar Mahey in Banking, Sat Paul Mahey and Vinod Kaul in Insurance, Amar Nath Ram in PSU (Coal India), Devender Kumar in PSU (ONGC), Harmesh Jassal PSU (Air India) among others. As I said earlier not that all of them know me very well or I have any in-depth interaction with them but still I feel proud that they are the worthy sons and daughters of my native place, Bootan Mandi.