Ministers in Jharkhand will use helicopters only once a month to save fuel. The Jharkhand Chief Minister, Madhu Koda, issued an advisory regarding this, reported India PR wire.

The rules and regulations regarding the use of helicopters and aircrafts by ministers, allow all ministers, including ministers of state and deputy ministers to use state-owned helicopters and aircrafts free of charge, subject to availability.

The Deputy Chief Minister, Stephen Marandi, who is in charge of finance said that the chief minister’s office has informed all the ministers. He said that the decision was taken at the request of the finance department.

The department is trying various methods to further cut down on expenditure of the non-plan budget. With this the finance department hopes to bring down fuel consumption. In Jharkhand, the monthly fuel consumption by a minister is between 1,200 and 2,100 litres. The total expenses of all the ministers in the state come to about a million rupees ($23,305.88) every month.

There is also another side to this. The Gulf news had earlier reported that the Jharkhand government had purchased a Dhruv helicopter for Rs.35 m ($815,584.3541) for anti-Maoist operations. The helicopter was purchased from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for surveillance and rescue operations. It was not used for more than 4 months due to various reasons, but was pressed into service early this year.

According to police officials, the helicopter has flown 160 hours. The officials complained that it was not available for their service as it was extensively being used by the Jharkhand ministers for their travel within the state.

The announcement from the chief minister came in under these circumstances. X

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