Denied decent' car, DRO walks to work

Chennai: I.Anandakumar, the Virudhunagar DRO, is not walking to work anymore. Denied a ‘proper good car’ befitting his status as the district revenue officer, the 38-year-old officer decided to ‘surrender’ his jalopy, an old Ambassador, two months ago after his petitions for a better mode of transportation were trashed by boss, the district collector.

Being a man of simple ways, the DRO decided to trek it from home to the office, a short distance though; but the problem was when he had to do the longer distances for 'camps' to various offices under his administration in the district. Sometimes he took the vehicles kept for allotment to the visiting VIPs but often found the cars were otherwise engaged.

“This is no big issue, so I do not want to comment on it”, said Anandakumar, when he was asked about the car controversy, as local reports had suggested that the collector chose to ignore his requests for a ‘better’ car because of some ‘differences’ between the two. “I had decided to walk it to the office after sending the Ambassador back. In any case, the walk also did good to my health. But now things have been sorted out as my car has been sanctioned by the government and I will be getting it soon. Meanwhile, I am using a vehicle granted to the Tahsildar as a stop-gap arrangement”, said the affable DRO.