Kerala made history by recruiting its first woman excise officer earlier this week. Thrissur native O Sajitha took charge as the first woman excise inspector in the state on Tuesday. Sajitha took charge at the Excise Circle Office in Malappuram’s Tirur. She was sworn in before the Excise Deputy Commission in front of the Excise Deputy Commission office on Tuesday and joined the Excise Circle Inspector Anwar Sadath in Tirur.
A civil excise officer in Thrissur for the last five years, Saritha has also worked with the excise department in Kolazhy, Thrissur and Wadalkanchery ranges.
Sajitha joined as the civil excise officer in 2014 in Kerala. Following this, the state government in 2016 allowed women officers to write an exam to apply for the post of Excise Inspectors.
It was decided that 10 percent of the women candidates would also be appointed as inspectors across the state based on their excellence. In an exam conducted to select these candidates, Sajitha ended up scoring the highest marks in this exam.
She trained for the post at the Thrissur Excise Academy. She told TNIE that there are several other women like her who have cleared the exams and who will now be promoted to Excise Inspectors.
She also added that her five years of experience in the excise department gave her increased confidence to take up a new and higher position.
“I was also briefed by my higher ups. I had visited the Deputy Excise Commissioner’s Office and Assistant Excise Commissioner’s Office and the officials too had given me instructions regarding my new position and the roles and responsibilities that come with it,” Sajitha told a local news portal.
The young officer is the daughter of Thrissur‘s Thaikkatussery native Damodaran and Meenakshi. She is married to Aji KG from Chuduvalathur in Shoranur. Aji works as a manager at the Star PVC Pipes and Fittings in Thrissur and the couple have a daughter who is studying in class 7.