Babus cycling to office run out of steam

Use of bicycles to office on Mondays by government staff which gained popularity among them a few weeks ago probably seem to have run out of steam.

Deputy commissioner P S Vastrad introduced a few months ago cycling to office on one day in a week. But his own staff seems to have less regard to this initiative. Not more than 10 cycles were found amidst two wheelers on premises of DC office here on Monday apart from the DC’s cycle parked inside the office. Among the nearly 200 staff working at the office, most of them have been reluctant to ride a cycle. A staff at the office said it was only the DC who  bicycled from his residence to the office every week.

But MUDA has a considerably good response when compared to other offices. A total of 20 cycles were found in the premises while 11 of them belong to the staff, the other nine might be of visitors, said the security guards there.

The Mysore City Corporation office also had a very poor response. Very few cycles were found which however, did not belong to the staff, as told by a staff himself. None including the commissioner rode bicycle this week to the office. There are 250 staff at the central office.

All the three offices claim that a circular has been issued to the staff and it is the responsibility of the staff to cycle on Mondays.

MUDA has distributed 18 cycles to its staff against a total strength of 205. The cycles were recently given to workers of C and D group workers.

Manju, a security guard at MUDA said that he has been a regular user of cycle since it
was given to him and he has no regret to use it for a day. He rides all the way from Srirampura and said it would be difficult for most of the employees who are in their old age to ride a cycle.

Many of the employees in all the three offices stated that as there was chief minister’s visit to the city on August 28, the officials and staff were given relaxation of cycling to offices. They said that preparations had to be made for various programmes on Wednesday which could not be done on time riding cycles.