Lucknow: A trainee Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur has done five sit-ups holding his ear in an act of self-punishment for not keeping the premises of tehsil clean.
Officer Rinku Singh’s atonement came after taking over as the new Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Powayan tehsil of Shahjahanpur on Tuesday, according to NDTV.
During a tour of the area, Rinku Singh noticed people urinating in the open next to a public toilet.
He made the offenders do sit-ups in public to set an example for others.
A lawyer justified his act saying that he was a Brahmin he could not get into a dirty public toilet.
Earlier in the day he made parents of some loitering children perform punitive sit-ups.
‘It felt that primary school students were missing out on education because of their parents. To educate parents on the importance of education and discourage such behaviour, ensuring kids go to school, I made parents do sit-ups,’ Singh was quoted as saying.
Later, advocates started protesting against his actions, questioning sit-ups.
Singh told them that the action was meant to stop repeating the offences but it was then pointed out that the premises of tehsil was also dirty.
‘The toilets were filthy, and stray animals roam around. They asked if I would do sit-ups for that, too? I said yes. Since it was my mistake, I accepted it and did sit-ups,’ Singh said.
The footage showed Sigh performing sit-ups, holding his ears in the presence of people including protesting advocates.
‘The tehsildar told me that the place was even filthier until 10 days ago. He recently got the place largely cleaned. Even after this, if the problem remains, it is our mistake, and I accept it. I have asked people to point out our mistakes so that we can rectify them,’ he added.