Deputy Commissioner of Palamu, Shantanu Kumar Agrahari shifted his entire officer from the district collectorate, to a two room building at Chiyanki airstrip ahead of the Prime Minister visit in the district on January 5.
The experiment was a success and helped yield results better than expected. The idea came to the mind of DC as in the past officials had to rush to Chiyanki airstrip from the collectorate premise located in the town Daltonganj, more than two and a half kilometer from the airstrip, every time someone was scheduled to arrive ther.
However, this makeshift office of DC was right there at the Chiyanki airstrip, saving time.
Agrahari said, “I did this to save time and energy. Monitoring and surveillance of works which are all too gigantic for PM’s programme were done with ease and without confusion. For a week or so Chiyanki airstrip was the neo collectorate.”
This two room building, where the DC’s office was shifted, has its own history as it was built in a record time of 72 hours for the then Prime Minister, P V Narasimha Rao.
The district has witnessed the arrival of many prime ministers in the past. While the current PM Narendra Modi had already visited the place twice earlier, P V Narasimha Rao was at Palamu in 1992 and even Indira Gandhi had visited the place.
In past such visits were overseen from the collectorate office in Daltonganj while this two room building near the airstrip remained a place for officers on duty to stretch legs.
Not lagging behind, SP Palamu Indrajeet Mahatha too got his tents pitched near the airstrip for his officials and he too used to be at the spot in winter nights till one or two in the morning, preceding PM’s visit.
A total of three tents were put up, one at the main gate where entry of vehicle was noted down 24x7 and two others close to the building. Light was provided all through the night with the help of huge generators.
Sources said that this was for the first time that a school wall was broken by the administration for entry and exit. The boundary wall of the airstrip too bore the same brunt when at 5 places it was wide opened for crowd.