Shivraj Singh Chauhan cycles to work. (PTI)

Bhopal, June 15: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s austerity drive is proving expensive.

Each time Chauhan sets out for office riding a bicycle, Bhopal residents end up paying for it.

Hundreds of cars and two-wheelers have to wait at seven traffic lights for the chief minister to pedal by. The idling time would be a lot shorter if he were to take the car.

“The chief minister is wilfully letting precious fuel go waste. Each time he steps out of the house, fuel worth thousands of rupees goes waste as most people keep their car and two-wheeler engines on,” said automobile expert Ajay Singh, who also heads the Madhya Pradesh Petrol Pumps’ Association.

Chauhan does not even save the fuel that would be spent if he were to drive. His official car and security and personal staff follow him at a snail’s pace from his 6 Shyamla Hills residence to the state secretariat two-and-a-half kilometres away.

Chauhan has been cycling to work at least once a week in protest against the oil price rise announced early this month.

But Singh said if the chief minister was serious about providing relief to people in Madhya Pradesh, he should have reduced sales tax on petroleum products to absorb some of the impact of the hike.

“Madhya Pradesh has the highest tax in the country, ranging between 26 and 30 per cent. Haryana, which had 12 per cent tax, has reduced it to 8 per cent but BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh is still pondering over a marginal tax cut,” he said.

R.K. Mandoli, another automobile expert, echoed him: “If a four-wheeler’s engine is kept alive for 10 minutes at various traffic signals, it consumes over 150 millilitres of petrol. Assuming that at peak hours, 1,500 cars are stranded at various points, the total fuel wastage runs into thousands of rupees,” he said.

Two of Chauhan’s 34 ministers have joined his austerity drive. Ram Dayal Ahirwal and Narayan Prasad Kabirpanthi, appointed recently, have been following the “once-a-week bicycle” routine.

The Opposition Congress mocked the chief minister’s austerity measure, pointing out that most cabinet ministers had more than two vehicles for their personal use.

State Congress spokesperson Brij Mohan Srivastava said: “Some of Shivraj’s cabinet colleagues have as many as seven cars at their disposal. Some ministers requisition additional cars from the boards and corporations under their ministries. We have concrete information that these government vehicles are used by ministers’ family members for personal service such as fetching vegetables or post-dinner paan,” Srivastava said.