Arvind Kumar Singh. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

Patna, Sept. 3: Kaimur district magistrate Arvind Kumar Singh has taken a novel initiative to cut down the consumption of fuel in the government offices in the wake of recent hike in the prices of petroleum products.

He has started walking down to his office, around 2km from his official residence at Bhabua, from yesterday. Better still, he has directed the employees deployed at the collectorate to keep the generator sets switched off during lunch break.

Not only the employees of the collectorate, which houses different government offices, were taken aback by Singh’s move. Even the residents of Bhabua, the Kaimur district headquarters around 200km southwest from here, were surprised over his initiative to reduce the consumption of fuel in the government offices.

Enthused with Singh’s austerity to reduce fuel consumption, Bhabua resident Bal Krishna Pandey said: “If the chief of the district administration can do it, why can’t others practice the same in their offices? I would like to appeal to the residents to use their vehicles only when required.”

Singh, the district magistrate (DM), said he had appealed to the public servants to travel either by public transport or train to reach the state headquarters for official work and not to use vehicles allotted to them. “Such little steps would help the nation cut down its import of petroleum products that have been costing the economy heavily,” he said.

He said he had issued directives to his subordinates to keep the generator sets switched off for two hours between 1pm and 3pm during lunch break.

The Kaimur DM further said that he had decided not to move with escort teams everywhere. “The security personnel would be used only at the time of going to the Naxalite-hit areas of the district,” Singh told The Telegraph.

Taking a cue from Singh, Kaimur sub-divisional police officer Nirmala Kumari today walked down to her office at the collectorate. “She covered a distance of 2km to reach her office on foot,” a senior police officer said.

Kaimur superintendent of police Ratna Mani Sanjeev has decided to go to the office on foot at least twice a week.