THE GOVERNMENT ORDER

The young Collector rubbed his eyes in quiet frustration and stared at the government circular on his desk. It was the month of December and time for the annual dose of economy measures that a panicked State Government issued each year for the final quarter of the financial year.

- Anirban Mukhopadhaya

This year, the high priests of the Finance Department, (FD), had decreed, with the approval of the Chief Minister, (CM), of course, that no government vehicles, whether owned or hired, would run on Sundays. Only the Police and Health Departments had been exempted, and any further exception, it was threatened, would invite instant disciplinary action. The DM ruefully noted that district administration and protocol functions had not been exempted from the Sunday vehicular ban.

The DM's brow was wrinkled in thought. Tomorrow, Sunday, was when the CM would be arriving in the State aircraft, accompanied by a Union Minister friend whose home was at the district headquarters. Now, if a car from the District Pool were to be placed in the receiving convoy at the local airport for the CM, as protocol dictated, the local press would have a field day, gleefully castigating the Collector, the official representative of the State Government in the district, for violating government orders on economy measures instead of setting an example in enforcing them! It was a case of damned if you do, and damned if you don't.