RAMANATHAPURAM: On his first day as the new district collector, Johny Tom Varghese inspected the government college and hospital in Ramanathapuram. He secured 8th rank in the UPSC Civil Service Examination in his third attempt in 2014 and served as the Assistant Collector in Erode (2015-2016), then as the Sub Collector in Cuddalore (2016-2017).
Varghese said timely actions will be taken to appoint surgeons in the hospital to save lives. "Due to the lack of surgeons in the district, surgeries are being referred to hospitals in Madurai. Scaling up solutions to the issues on the Government level would benefit a lot of people," he added. Further, he said he would look into drinking water scarcity, sanitation facilities in bus stands and issues raised by fishermen in the district.
Before taking the collector's role, Varghese served as the Additional director of the State's Fisheries Department in Ramanathapuram (2017-2019) where he came up with the Deep Sea Fishing scheme specifically for the district, which was initiated by the Central and State Government."Deep sea fishing was also considered to prevent Indo-Sri Lankan conflict. As the number of trawlers in the Palk Bay is high, boats at times drift away to Lanka. The fishermen were also provided limited government funds to procure deep sea fishing boats as a replacement for trawling boats" said Varghese.
During Covid-19, Varghese served his term as a Commissioner for three years in the Welfare of the Differently Abled department. "Through a 24*7 help-line, we understood hearing-impaired persons who depend on lip-syncs for communication were hindered by the masks. Considering this, the government distributed nearly 1.5 lakh transparent masks," he said. In addition, his administration provided vaccination to the differently-abled at their doorsteps and incorporated RIGHTS, one of the largest projects detailed by the World Bank. "The project focused on the overall comprehensive care of the differently-abled, primarily to increase the early intervention of diseases," he said.