Sagayam IAS

Ubagarampillai Sagayam (Tamil: உபகாரம்பிள்ளை  சகாயம்), usually referred to as U. Sagayam, is a 2001 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, noted for his anti-corruption activities.

Sagayam, whose office door bears a sign reading "Reject bribes, hold your head high" (in Tamil, Lanjam thavirtthu,nenjam nimirtthu; லஞ்சம் தவிர்த்து நெஞ்சம் நிமிர்த்து), has repeatedly antagonized influential politicians and their supporters in Tamil Nadu.^[2] In 2011, he was appointed to oversee state elections in the Madurai district; his strict enforcement of the laws against vote-buying played a role in the change of state government. Beginning in 2012, his investigation of complaints of illegal granite-mining in the Madurai area led to charges against a number of politicians and businesses, including a mining company founded by a scion of one of Madurai's most influential political families.

Early life and education

Sagayam is the youngest of five sons of a farmer from Perunchunai village, Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu. He attended a Tamil-medium panchayat elementary school and then a Government Higher secondary school at Ellaippatti. He eventually received master's degrees in social work and in law.

Granite quarrying

Main article: Granite scam in Tamil Nadu

In May 2012, Sagayam investigated reports of illegal granite quarrying in the vicinity of Madurai. These activities had been noted in 2008 by a Right to Information (RTI) activist. Pursuant to his complaint, the Madras High Court had ordered an inquiry in 2009, but nothing came of it until 2010, when Tamil-language daily newspaper Dina Bhoomi ran a series of articles, implicating among others Durai Dayanidhi, Alagiri's eldest son. This led to the arrest on specious charges of the RTI activist and the Dina Bhoomi editor. The issue was brought up in the 2011 elections, and pursued after the AIADMK government was formed.^[8]

Sagayam's May 2012 report accused several senior officials of collusion with illegal granite miners, and suggested that losses to the state from illegal mining amounted to at least Rs 16,000 crore(Rs 160 billion), and possibly twice that. Four days later, he was transferred from his position as district collector to a post as managing director of Co-optex, a handloom weavers' cooperative in Chennai.^[2][8]

Sagayam came into conflict with a superior at Co-optex as well. When a manager at the cooperative was assaulted by members of AIADMK, Sagayam filed a complaint against the assailants, contrary to the wishes of state textiles minister S. Gokula Indira. He also refused to provide permanent office space in the cooperative's building to Indira, maintaining that this would interfere with the cooperative's functioning. As a result of this, Sagayam was transferred twice in September 2014: first to the position of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy commissioner; then, two days later, to the vice-chairmanship of Science City in Chennai.

Although the granite-quarrying investigation had languished after Sagayam's transfer, the issue did not die. Sagayam's report was leaked to the press in August 2012, prompting a public outcry that compelled the government to pursue the matter. Under Anshul Mishra, Sagayam's successor as district collector, a number of arrests were made in January 2013; Durai Dayanidhi went into hiding. Several officials, including two former Madurai district collectors, were investigated for alleged collusion with illegal granite operations. However, in June 2013, Mishra was transferred, and the investigation again lost all momentum.

In July 2014, a citizen activist filed a petition with the Madras High Court, seeking to rekindle the inquiry. In response, the court appointed Sagayam to the post of Special Officer-cum-Legal Commissioner, charged with the task of investigating all mining operations in Tamil Nadu, and ordered the state government to relieve him of the Science City post. The government attempted to contest the order, maintaining that the investigation was concluded; the court rejected their arguments and, in November 2014, Sagayam was duly appointed. It was suggested, however, that the state government might attempt to limit his investigation to granite operations in the Madurai area, keeping him from looking into sand mining on the beaches and along the rivers of the state.

Sagayam's investigation was allegedly obstructed from several quarters. District officials purportedly gave him little cooperation; his room was allegedly wiretapped; and he and his team were purportedly attacked by goons acting on behalf of granite-mining interests. On one occasion, when the police were slow to exhume bodies of alleged victims of human sacrifice carried out by quarry operators, Sagayam spent the night in the graveyard to ensure that no one tampered with the evidence. The investigation discovered evidence of extensive illegal granite-mining from public and private land, and diversion or destruction of rivers and water bodies. Raids on the houses of two former Madurai collectors suggested complicity by government officials.