IAS Officer cancels her 6 month maternity leave to resume her duty amid COVID-19 in Andhra Pradesh

Women are endowed with the unique capacity to juggle several roles and they do justice to everything they take up. An example of this is GVMC Commissioner, Dr Srijana Gummalla (IAS). It has not even been a month since Srijana Gummalla has given birth to a baby boy. Within 22 days, she is back in the office and attending her duty as Municipal Commissioner. The main reason is the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The IAS Officer has cancelled her six-month maternity leave and given topmost priority to her duty towards the people. She is seen in a photo attending office, with her new-born as well. The Commissioner has tweeted that she is definitely taking all required precautions for both.

Chirugu Prashanth Kumar on his twitter handle wrote “An extraordinary feather of @IASassociation. 2013 batch IAS Mrs @GummallaSrijana Commissioner @GVMC_OFFICIAL refused to take 06 months maternal leave and joined back her office with one-month-old baby in lap. Truly inspiring to all #CoronaWarriors #COVID__19”

Srijana Gummalla in her response said “Thanks for the kind words Prashanth garu. Taking every precaution with baby. I keep the baby with me in a very protected environment for feeding and nurturing. Thanks a lot again for all of you”.

Srijana joined the Indian Administrative Service in 2013. Her association with Vizag started when she was posted during Cyclone Hudhud. She served as the Joint Collector of Visakhapatnam District for over 31 months. Srijana then took up the post of GVMC Commissioner on June 24, 2019. She has been residing in Vizag for more than years and has been aware of the issues prevalent in the city. Her emphasis has always been on making the city cleaner and providing safe drinking water, among many other duties.

The IAS Officer is also quite active on social media. In fact, even prior to her delivery, she was actively addressing issues brought to her notice on Twitter. A number of residents had been sharing their grievances with her on the social handle. Additionally, the Commissioner does make it a point to share any GVMC achievements regularly on Twitter and Facebook.