Honnia first visually-impaired IAS officer to be posted in state

Kolkata: Kempo Honnia, a completely visually impaired IAS officer has joined as the Officer on Special Duty at the Administrative Training Institute (ATI).

Honnia joined the West Bengal cadre and will be going for the foundation course at the Lalbahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie in August.

This is for the first time when a completely visually impaired officer will function as the sub-divisional officer after completing his training soon.

Honnia's batchmate Pranjal Pati has joined the administration in Kerala. Krishnagopal Tewari, the first civil servant with complete visual imparity, had joined the Madhya Pradesh administration in 2006.

Honnia hails from a village in Karnataka. The problem with his eyes was detected when he was studying in

class III.

His parents took him to several eye specialists in South India who told them that it would difficult to get back his vision. A student of literature, Honnia joined college.

Honnia's life took a turn when one day he was assisted by a woman whom he came in contact with and eventually got married to.

He repeatedly told Achantiya not to marry him because of my visual imparity.

"But she refused to listen to me and spoke to my parents". Achintya and Kempo have two sons.

Asked how he is going to take up such a responsible job, Honnia replied: "Visually impaired people have a special sense and though I do not have outer vision, I have inner vision which will help me to work seriously in the district where I will be posted."

Honnia has special liking for literature and he is now trying hard to learn Bengali.