In the administrative set up in districts, the Collector's Jamedar is perhaps the only one apart from his boss and the Superintendent of Police one who enjoys some unique status. There is only one post of Jamedar in any district like that of the top Revenue and Police administrators.
The post is also unique in that while in the company of the Collector and Magistrate, a Jamedar is witness to the most important developments in the district from close quarters. And there are Jamedars like the recently retired Abdul Hameed who have scores of interesting anecdotes to remember from the days of their service.
Hameed retired on April 30 after serving for 20 years in the position though he joined Revenue services as an attendant in 1974. He had witnessed developments under 14 Collectors, some of whom, according to those who have seen Hameed function, will never forget the likeable person.
There were times when the jovial Hameed had done what his all powerful bosses could not.
“Our car (Collector's official vehicle) had broken down on Kupti ghat road and no driver on the road would stop even when the Collector himself hailed them,” he recalls of an incident. “Seeing the dilemma of my officer I volunteered to ask lift and the first vehicle I waved a hand at stopped. It was my uniform which did the trick you see,” he adds with a wink.
The Jamedar is a personal attendant of the District Collector and sports the green cross belt on a white uniform besides the rather large brass badge declaring the name of his post.
The post itself seems to be an embellishment residual from the times of the Nizam of Hyderabad.
“In 2010, I was injured in the stone throwing which had taken place at the Integrated Tribal Development Agency office at Utnoor during an agitation by Adivasi students. I literally hugged the then Collector P. Venkateswarlu to save him from the raining stones,” Hameed remembers.
The retirement of this longest serving Jamedar in the history of Adilabad district, post merger into the Indian Union, also came under dramatic situation. So used were the clerks at the district collectorate to the presence of Hameed as Jamedar that they forgot he was to retire on April 30.
“That I had crossed my retirement age and date was known only after the clerks poured over my service book to seek some other detail. By that time I had worked for five days extra though I do not mind doing so,” Hameed states.
