Kochi: Strange are the ways of our ministers and interestingly the tyres of their official cars are of strangely different make! A Right to Information (RTI) query by an Ernakulam native has thrown up some startling statistics on the amount of money spent by the state exchequer to replace the tyres of the official cars of various ministers in Kerala.
Kerala Power Minister M M Mani, known for his verbal outburst, leads the list with 34 replacements of tyres in 10 instances over two and a half year at an estimated cost of Rs 3.4 lakh.
One tyre cost about Rs 10,000 to Rs 13,000.
The statistics reveal that the tyres of Mani's official car K L 01 CB 8340 were replaced every month. Two of the tyres were replaced nine times, while the other two eight times.
What is perplexing is that has this car ever covered a humongous long distance in just 30 months even if it is assumed that a new tyre could at least cover a distance of 40,000 km!
Denying any wrongdoing, the minister has in a Facebook post said that on an average an Innova car gets 20,000km for its tyres, and that his car has run for more than 1.24 lakh kilometres in the said period, that too covering mostly hilly regions of the state and at high speeds.
“The minister or his staff has no role in changing the vehicles tyres and that the tourism department is the one in charge of it, hence to say that the minister made profit by purchasing more tyres is a frivolous charge,” he added.
The Forest Minister K Raju stands next in line with 19 tyre replacements. And the state exchequer lost an estimated Rs 1.9 lakh over it. The data furnished also reveals 19 tyres were replaced on five different occasions for making the official car of the forest minister fit for use.
The figures for Water Resources Minister K Krishnankutty are 13 tyres at four different times. It was 11 tyres in four instances for the car used by Public Works Department Minister G Sudhakaran.
However, only 11 tyres of two official cars used by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan were changed and that too only on four different times.
On the other extreme, A K Balan, Minister for SC-ST Welfare and Law, has spent the least on tyres as only two tyres of his official cars were replaced in 2.5 years!
Tourism department assistant executive engineer divulged the details in reply to the RTI query posed by one S Dhanaraj.
