M. M. Rajendran

M. M. Rajendran
Governor of Odisha
In office
15 November 1999 – 17 November 2004
Chief MinisterGiridhar Gamang
Hemananda Biswal
Naveen Patnaik
Preceded byC. Rangarajan
Succeeded byRameshwar Thakur
Personal details
Born(1935-04-12)12 April 1935
Madras Province, British India
Died23 December 2023(2023-12-23) (aged 88)
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Alma materMadras Christian College
ProfessionCivil servant, public administrator

Moberly Manoah Rajendran (12 April 1935 – 23 December 2023) was an Indian IAS officer who became Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu and Governor of Odisha.[1][2][3] Earlier he was a member of UNICEF's executive board and vice chairman of its program committee at New York.[4] He was sponsored by a Tamil Nadu-based political party for the post of President of India[5] in 2012.

M. M. Rajendran at an event with the then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee
M. M. Rajendran at an event with the then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Rajendran took over as Governor of Odisha in 1999 soon after the State was hit by a super cyclone of unprecedented severity and was given the mandate by the prime minister to guide the State Government in its relief and rehabilitation work which earned the praise of the people of Odisha and the prime minister, who recognising his leadership, dissolved the Central Cabinet Committee earlier set up by him to coordinate the relief work. Realising that most of the 10,000 lives lost in the coastal areas could have been saved if only there were good shelters along the coast, he was instrumental in getting shelters built all along the coast, with the help of organizations such as German Red Cross, Ramakrishna Mission, Syrian church and many more and emergency procedures with community participation in Disaster Relief put in place when he was Governor of Odisha. These measures, followed by the State even after his departure, were of immense benefit to the people of Odisha in subsequent natural calamities, exemplified by the thousands of lives saved when Cyclone Fani in 2019 and more recently Yaas in May 2021, hit Odisha.

Recipient of several Lifetime Achievement Awards including the Mahatma Gandhi Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2019 from the Gandhi World Foundation celebrating 150 years of the Mahatma. He was also conferred the Honorary Lifetime Membership of the Rotary International in 2001. Rajendran died on 23 December 2023, at the age of 88.[6][7]

  1. ^ "BIO - DATA OF GOVERNORS OF Odisha". ws.ori.nic.in. 2006. Archived from the original on 19 June 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2012. SHRI M. M. RAJENDRAN
  2. ^ "Brief History of Odisha Legislative Assembly Since 1937". ws.ori.nic.in. 2011. Archived from the original on 9 January 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2012. NAME OF THE GOVERNORS OF Odisha
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ "India: Protestant Christian Recommended As Presidential Candidate". Eurasia Review. 20 May 2012.
  5. ^ sismografo, Il. "Il Sismografo". Retrieved 30 May 2021.
  6. ^ Former Odisha Governor MM Rajendran Passes Away at 88 Odisha Bhaskar
  7. ^ "Former Odisha governor Rajendran passes away". The Times of India. 24 December 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.