Mysuru:  Retired IAS officer S.N. Nagaraj (62), died after the tractor he was driving overturned at his farm at Doddabyadarahalli in Pandavapura taluk of Mandya district yesterday.

The retired officer met the tragic end at around 12.30 pm after his bid to remove a tractor that had tilted in his farm. He was driving a tractor with tiller equipment attached at the back to plough the land when the vehicle tilted to its right. While other villagers advised him to bring in another tractor to pull out the tractor, Nagaraj dissuaded them and went on to do the job himself.

Though Nagaraj had succeeded in putting the vehicle back on the track, it overturned after a distance. Nagaraj, who came under the rear wheel of the vehicle, died instantly. The body was shifted to the mortuary at district hospital where post-mortem was conducted before handing over  the body to his family members.

Nagaraj was a native of Siddaiahnakoppal and retired as the Deputy Commissioner of Raichur in 2014. He had purchased a few acres of land at Doddabyadarahalli and had been growing various crops after his retirement, said the Police. He had also earned the reputation of being a progressive farmer.

It may be recalled here that Star of Mysore Editor-in-Chief K.B. Ganapathy had written about this officer in his column Abracadabra on June 19, 2018 under the title ‘Top Govt. Officials Should Take People-Friendly Decisions’ where he had mentioned about how Nagaraj, as MUDA Commissioner, had simplified the process of obtaining a Possession Certificate from MUDA for getting the Title Deed of a land.

Nagaraj had served in various departments, including at the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA). He was promoted to IAS rank during the fag end of his career. As a KAS officer, he started as a Revenue Officer in Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) followed by Commissioner of MUDA (19-10-2005 to 27-4-2006), Registrar of University of Mysore and Deputy Secretary at Mandya Zilla Panchayat.

After being promoted to IAS, he had served as Special Deputy Commissioner in Bengaluru North and later as Deputy Commissioner of Raichur where he retired from the service two years ago in 2016. Following his retirement, he had bought land at Doddabyadarahalli where he had taken up farming activity.

While his family members that included his wife and two children stayed in Bengaluru, he would shuttle between his farm and Bengaluru.