V.R. Krishna Teja assumed office as District Collector of Alappuzha on Wednesday.
He took charge from Additional District Magistrate S. Santhoshkumar.
A 2015 batch IAS officer, Mr. Teja is the 55th Collector of the district. Prior to taking charge in Alappuzha, he was Director of the Scheduled Castes Development Department.
Hailing from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, his other stints included the Director of Kerala Tourism, Managing Director of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation, and Subcollector of Alappuzha. During his stint as Subcollector in the district, Mr. Teja was hailed for evacuating Kuttanad residents to safety during the 2018 deluge and spearheading the ‘I am for Alleppey’ campaign to help rebuild the flood-hit district.
He played an important role in introducing and implementing Kerala Tourism’s Keravan Kerala initiative and the Mission Facelift project in KTDC.
Mr. Teja has replaced Sriram Venkitaraman as Collector. Mr. Venkitaraman, accused of alcohol-impaired driving that resulted in the death of a journalist in Thiruvananthapuram in 2019, had remained in the post for barely a week. His posting as Collector had kicked up a row and the State government transferred and made him general manager of Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation.
Mr. Venkitaraman was conspicuous by his absence at the ceremony to hand over the charge.
