Himachal Cabinet approves Rs 92 lakh Mercedes Benz car for Governor

The state government will purchase a Mercedes Benz car for Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla for Rs 92 lakh to replace his earlier vehicle of the same model.

The Cabinet today gave approval for the purchase of the vehicle. “As per the protocol and norms, the official vehicle of the Governor has to be replaced after five years,” said Industries and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan.

The new vehicle will replace the black E 350 Mercedes Benz car, which was bought in January 2019 for Rs 80 lakh.

It was in 1998 that a Mercedes car was added to the fleet of vehicles of the Raj Bhawan for the first time when VS Rama Devi was the Governor. The cost of the first Mercedes car acquired for the Governor was then Rs 28 lakh. Since then, all Governors had used Mercedes cars.

However, on social media, people criticised the Cabinet decision to purchase a luxury vehicle for the Governor for Rs 92 lakh at a time when the state had suffered huge losses and damage due to rain disasters and the debt burden of the state had risen above Rs 1 lakh crore.