Bhopal: In defiance of finance minister Tarun Bhanot’s- one-officer-one-vehicle order on Monday, a fleet of cars was seen parked in the compound of the officers’ bungalows. Bhanot’s initiative is aimed at curtailing the expenses of the cash-strapped state government. Free Press made a round of bungalows on Tuesday to see whether the minister’s order was followed or not.
According to sources the officials including IAS and IPS are using more than two vehicles. Sources blame the mindset of officials for this scenario, in that many officials hold the notion that more the vehicle more the powerful officer- as a fallout of this theory some of officers are having more than four vehicles at their disposal.
Sources claim that many officers use a single vehicle, but the rest of the vehicles are been used by the family members including their wife and children. The maintenance costs of the vehicles are owned by the government, which puts huge expenses on the state coffers. The state government need money to fulfil the promises made in their Vachan Patra and one of the main components is the famer loan waive of scheme.
‘Bring in transparency, install GPS’
RTI activist Ajay Dubey is apprehensive about the decision, “Every government tries to follow the scheme, but the main part is the execution of the programme. If the government really wants to bring change, they shall put online information about the vehicle allocation and also the GPS should be installed to check the running of the vehicle.”
