It’s a routine practice for District Collectors to move in a convoy when they go on inspection in their areas. However, there is a collector who likes to go inspecting on a bicycle! As such, it becomes difficult to hide the ground realities from him and every department in his jurisdiction needs to be extra careful as far as their responsibilities are concerned. We are talking about the Collector of Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Sandeep JR, who is known for his unique cycle patrolling.
Speaking to Indian Masterminds, Mr. Sandeep talked about his unique style of administration and his special initiatives in several places of posting.
PATROLLING ON CYCLE
While many officers across the services like to commute in bicycle to save energy, officers using cycles for inspection in their areas are rare. Explaining his unique cycle patrolling, Mr. Sandeep said, “When you are moving in a convoy or in an official vehicle, it becomes difficult to reach the remote areas. Since you can’t visit those areas, so there will always be a gap in information which you get. You’ll be presented with a rosy picture which is far from reality. In this case, cycle is the best option. You can commute easily and reach remote localities. You become aware of their problems and then you can take decisions to solve them from office.”
Every now and then, the officer can be seen inspecting a hospital, school or dealing with encroachment, all on a bicycle. He says that he doesn’t want anybody to recognise him in the first place, which makes his task easier.
CREATING FRUIT FOREST
Before Chhatarpur, Mr. Sandeep was posted as the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Jabalpur. There also, he took several initiatives to improve the health and hygiene of the area. In the sanitation front, he established a wireless communication system for the sanitation workers and supervisor for better functionality and fitted all the garbage collection vehicles with GPS. He says that every city has its own challenges and during his tenure in Jabalpur, he tried everything to make it cleaner.
The credit of planting a fruit forest with 20,000 trees in Jabalpur also goes to him. Most of those trees have grown up and are ready to bear fruits. He said, “In my experience, the roadside plantation is not that sustainable. It becomes difficult to maintain the trees. So, in Jabalpur, we tried to plant fruit trees in already selected patches of land. This not only helped in increasing the green cover, but in the coming days, it could help the poor to fight hunger.”
REPLACING 40,000 STREET LIGHTS
In Jabalpur, he also started a campaign to replace all the conventional lights with LED lights. In some dark and crime prone areas, more lights were fitted. A total of 40,000 lights were installed in the street of Jabalpur. All these lights were also connected to CCMS (Command Control and Monitor System). “This helped in keeping a tab on each light, if they are on or off. Besides this, it also helped us to replace any light within 24 hours, in case it was not working,” he said.
He also took some pedestrian-centric initiatives and worked on bettering the condition of footpaths by making them continuous.
BOOSTING TOURISM IN KHAJURAHO
At Chhatarpur, he is now focusing on making Khajuraho a hub for destination wedding and pre-wed shoots to boost tourism. He is also working towards making every public office easily accessible to the differently abled by constructing ‘right ramp’. “I stressed on right ramps because we have ramps, but they don’t make the differently able completely independent. You can see a wooden block or hump just after the ramp ends and the gate is there. We are working to remove that so anyone can travel with help,” the officer said.
