Gautam Goswami, the Bihar IAS officer who made headlines as one of the Time magazine’s Asian Heroes of 2004 and later as an accused in the flood relief scam, died on Tuesday 5th January 2009. . A 1991-batch officer, Goswami, 43, was suffering from pancreatic cancer.
He was also a medical doctor and a gold medalist.
Goswami has been in the limelight several times. When he was Patna DM during last Lok Sabha polls, he went straight to BJP star campaigner LK Advani on the dais at Gandhi Maidan and asked him to stop his speech, saying “the deadline had expired”. He was selected one of the 20 Asian Heroes by TIME magazine. Bokker prize winner Arvind Adiga has written about Dr. Gautam Gosawmi in Time Magzine and told him as one of 20 Heros of Asia. However it is now alleged that throughout, Goswami allegedly channelled government money set aside for flood relief into a labyrinth of private accounts. The Indian Express first started reporting on possible misappropriations in 2004. These investigative reports soon caused a backlash against the officer.
The reports meticulously detailed the suspected modus operandi. Goswami, it was said, was funneling funds to a private company named Baba Satya Sai Industrial Corporation, and maintaining in the records books that money was paid to BSSIC. BSSIC, incidentally was also the acronym of the state agency, Bihar Small Scale Industries Corporation, that oversaw relief work. It is reported that one year later, during the audits, it was discovered that less than 1% of the money reached those affected. Goswami was eventually re-instated. His health had been an area of concern and he was being treated for pancreatic cancer.
Booker Prize winner Arvind Adiga has wroten about Gautam Goswami in Time Magazine and told him in one of 20 Heroes of Asia.
Arvind Adiga has written about Gautam Goswami –
Gautam Goswami
Laying Down the Law
Posted Monday, October 4, 2004; 21:00 HKT
When flash floods hit the Indian state of Bihar in July, millions of people were displaced from their homes, many without access to food or drinking water. A catastrophe was looming, and Gautam Goswami did more than anyone to avert it. As the district magistrate—the top bureaucrat—in Patna, Bihar’s capital, Goswami coordinated a massive relief effort that involved the Indian government, army and international aid agencies. At 4:30 each morning, Goswami was at Patna’s airport hangar, seeing off helicopters loaded with food, drinking water, tents and medical supplies; then he made sure truck convoys headed off to areas that could be reached by land. Goswami, 38, and his team toiled for a month, until the floods receded and the displaced returned home.
Bihar is India’s poorest state, and one of its most violent. Many Indians view the territory—which is infested with gangsters and Marxist guerrillas—as a basket case beyond redemption. But Goswami is helping to save it. For example, after three successive parliamentary elections in Patna had to be either partially or entirely countermanded because of violence and electoral fraud, Goswami was put in charge of the ballot in 1999. He barricaded Patna, so that gunmen in cars couldn’t enter the city, and set up telephone lines for citizens to call in with complaints. In 1999 and 2004, with Goswami as the overseer, Patna had the two fairest elections it had seen in years.
Goswami’s reputation for upholding the law improves the image of a civil service perceived by many Indians as corrupt or inefficient. Says Goswami: “There are so many more ways to help people in this job than in any other.”
He was a great administrator.