Patna, June 19: The state government has asked its employees to wear khadi clothes at least twice a week to promote the national fabric.

Chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh today issued a circular to this effect to principal secretaries and heads of all the government departments. According to the new circular, every public servant would have to wear khadi clothes in his/her office for two days in a week.

"The idea is to promote both sale and production of khadi in the state," the chief secretary's letter states.

The official communiqué was aimed at generating job opportunities in rural areas and inculcating a sense of nationalism. "The same request has been made to the teachers of all the government schools in the state," the chief secretary said.

An official at the Secretariat said on Friday that the order would have to be complied with by the public servants right from grade IV (peon) to those in the rank of principal secretary. He, however, clarified that the government had made a request to the employee and not made it compulsory.

Reacting over the new order, general secretary of the Bihar Administrative Association Sushil Kumar said he was yet to come across the letter of the chief secretary, asking the employees to wear khadi. "I have to first see whether any amendments have been made in the dress code for the public servants in the wake of the new order or not," he told The Telegraph.

"If such an order has been issued (according to the media reports), it would increase the expenses of the public servants. Maintaining khadi clothes is a costly affair," he added.

The order would affect around 4 lakh government employees.

Dipak Kumar Singh, the secretary of the water resource department and an office-bearer of the IAS association, said: "I don't see any problem in wearing khadi clothes. It makes one feel comfortable."

Hailing the move of the government, Sanjiv Sahu, an office-bearer of Dhwaja Prasad Sahu Foundation, said it would generate job opportunities in rural parts of the state. He also requested the government to revive the khadi-generating units in the state.

"The generation of khadi is almost negligible in Bihar. It has to be revived," he added.

Khadi or khaddar is a term for handspun and hand-woven cloth from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan primarily made out of cotton.