Dad, grandad conservancy workers, Durga to helm municipality as commissioner

CHENNAI: When Sivasamy (Dhanush), in a punch line in award-winning 'Asuran' said, "If you have land, they will snatch it. If you have money, they will steal it. But if you have education, none will be able to usurp it," it was just a movie dialogue. Five years later, Durga, daughter of deceased conservancy worker Sankar from Mannargudi, has lived up to those words.

Durga was among the 29 who received appointment orders for various posts filled for the Directorate of Municipal Administration. Hailing from a family of two generations of conservancy workers, Durga has broken the caste shackles and become a commissioner in a municipality like Mannargudi where her late father Sankar once worked as a conservancy worker till he breathed his last.

Unable to contain her emotions after collecting her ticket to liberation – appointment order for the post of Municipal Commissioner – from Chief Minister MK Stalin at the secretariat, an emotionally overwhelmed Durga said, "My father worked as a conservancy worker in Mannargudi municipality. I have seen every struggle my father went through. I have always seen him wear a khaki shirt and trousers. I have never seen him wear a good shirt, dhoti, or decent footwear. But, he was always very particular that his daughter must not suffer like him."

"He lost a lot in his life. He did not even have a good meal. Today, I have become a municipal commissioner. I would have been happier if I had received the appointment order when he was alive. He passed away only seven months ago. My grandad too was a conservancy worker. From now on, our lives will change," she said, with eyes brimmed up.

Thanking the CM and TN government, Durga said, "If we avail all the benefits and facilities provided by the Tamil Nadu government, all of us could reach great heights. I was educated in a government school and a government college. I made use of the TNPSC portal and the government's free coaching centre."

Moved, Chief Minister Stalin posted on 'X', "Durga is proof of education alone having the capacity to develop a generation. I reiterate! Education is an asset that cannot be snatched by anyone. Education is wealth."