| Irony! XEn hires vehicle for Rs 7.5 lakhs, new vehicle costs Rs 7 lakh only | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 3: Former Executive Engineer of Public Health Engineering Department posted in district Kathua had hired a Mahindra load carrier and paid a total of over Rs. 7.5 Lakhs as rent but the total cost of the vehicle is around Rs. 7 lakhs only.
Moreover another Scorpio vehicle was also hired by Exen, for which he had paid Rs 85,200 as rent for one year. The department, meanwhile refused to furnish names of the vehicle owners.
According to documents in possession of Early Times, an RTI application was filed by an applicant in the office of Executive Engineer PHE department Kathua. The applicant had sought information on various points regarding the hiring of vehicles by the department and the owners of the vehicles.
The reply given by department and signed by the then Executive Engineer Sumeet Kumar Puri maintained that two vehicles including a Scorpio bearing registration number JK02BP-3658 (Scorpio) and JK08A-9817 (Mahindra) were hired by the department.
Though the applicant had sought the names of the owners of these vehicles, the department refused to furnish their names. The department had paid a total of Rs. 757919 with effect from 4/2015 to 28/3/2017 to the owner of Mahindra load carrier.
"The showroom cost of the Mahindra Load carrier is nearly Rs. 6.30 Lakhs but along with insurance and other document costs, the total cost of vehicle is nearly Rs. 7 Lakhs but surprisingly, the department had paid over Rs. 7.57 Lakhs in two years", an official said, adding that though the department has its own drivers but it has been giving public money to some private owners.
A total of Rs. 85200 was paid as rent for the Scorpio hired by department, which was only for Executive Engineer SK Puri but in the reply given by department, it has been claimed that the Scorpio was being used by AEE Upender Singh, Gopal Sharma, Rakesh Mahajan, Rajeev Sai, Bhushan Singh, all AEE but if sources are to be believed, the vehicle was exclusively used by Executive Engineer and names of the AEE were deliberately dragged in the RTI reply.
Sources further claimed that the hired Scorpio as well as Mahindra load carrier were also hired not on pick and choose basis. "Those who hold close allegiance to Executive Engineer got their vehicles hired by the PHE department and in this way, the officials of department were also pleased by the owners by one or the other way. No transparent system was adopted to hire these vehicles", sources said.
Sources further claimed that the hiring of private vehicles was preferred by the Executive Engineers rather than asking the department to purchase their own vehicles. "The drivers of department have been getting their salaries by sitting idle. They are ready to drive the vehicles but department prefer to hire vehicles rather than purchasing new ones, because they get huge commission from the vehicle owners and many a times, the officials purchase vehicles on the name of some relatives and got them attached with department. In this way, the officials have been making fortunes", sources alleged. |
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