26 high-end vehicles for ministers in state car pool

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 31

Notwithstanding all the austerity talk of the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana, 26 new “high-end” cars have been recently purchased for ministers and officers alike.

While four each of Toyota Fortuner and Honda CRV have been purchased for ministers, 10 Toyota Corolla Altis and Maruti Ciaz have recently been purchased in the “state car pool” for the officers, according to information. Besides, a few Maruti Dzires have also been purchased by the government.

Sources said Honda CRVs and the Fortuners had been given to seven Cabinet ministers of the Khattar government and the Leader of the Opposition, eight Maruti Ciaz have been bought as the “second car” given to the family of the ministers.

The previous Hooda-led Congress government during its term had introduced the concept of a “second car” for the family of ministers and sanctioned Maruti Dzires for the same. The Khattar government has upgraded this to Ciaz model of Maruti Suzuki.

Justifying the purchase, Khattar’s media adviser Amit Arya said the cars with the ministers had completed 3.5 lakh km mileage and needed to be replaced. “In fact, most of the cars that have been replaced had run beyond the optimum benchmark set by the government and were used for an additional year,” Arya said, adding that the government would not have phased these out if they had not outlived their utility.

Leader of the Opposition Abhay Chautala said his old Fortuner had been replaced after he wrote to the government to provide him a new vehicle. “It had done over 2.5 lakh km and I felt the need for a new car. I wanted a new Fortuner in place of the existing one. The government has, thankfully, done the needful,” he said.

While officials are tightlipped about the cost of the “purchase”, sources said more cars could be bought in the coming year since the ministers of state are still using their “old” cars. This is also true because the bureaucracy has gradually become top-heavy with a greater number of Additional Chief secretaries and Principal Secretaries need more of the “bigger cars” than those used by director-level officers.