Thiruvananthapuram: The misuse of government vehicles is rampant and often goes unchecked. The strict guidelines formed in the usage of the vehicles are flouted blatantly, and there is none to question even if they are used for anti-social activities as was revealed in the probe into Museum molestation and Kuravankonam house break-in attempts.
Malayinkeezhu native Santosh Kumar (39), arrested for the incidents, was the driver of the car given to Gopakumar Nair, private secretary of Water Resources Minister Roshy Augustine. The probe found he had roamed scot-free in the ‘Innova car’ even during the night and travelled in it to reach the places where the incidents happened.
Government vehicles are allotted only to ministers and private secretaries. However, the vehicles of Public Sector Enterprises and Corporations under the concerned department are given to personal staff, too. There is no mechanism to ensure that the logbooks of these vehicles are properly maintained and that they are parked back every day after their ‘official’ use.
The driver, accused of molesting a lady doctor at Museum compound when she went for a morning walk on October 26, should have parked the government vehicle the previous night at the Secretariat.
As per the rules, the car could be taken only in the morning to pick up Gopakumar Nair and drop him back after the day’s work. The driver in charge should take it back to the secretariat and enter the parking time in the logbook. Gopakumar Nair states that it was the Kerala Water Authority that allotted him the vehicle. And it was a private agency that provided the driver. He further said it’s the responsibility of the security officials at the Secretariat who should examine how the vehicle was taken out during the night.
GPS missing, rules flouted
The Chief Minister and ministers use the cars provided by the Tourism department, which has allocated 10 such vehicles to the CM’s office for official use. Those other than that of ministers are allowed to operate only a fixed distance from the office. The officials need to pay for travelling more distance other than this limit. But the rule is rarely adhered to. The personal staff of many ministers misuse the vehicle for personal use, such as buying commodities from the market or dropping children at school. Such ‘violations’ are normally ignored by authorities.
Meanwhile, the direction issued 10 years back for installing GPS devices in government vehicles is yet to be implemented. And the reason, they could no longer record wrong entries in the logbooks containing travel details and plunder public money upon the vehicles featuring GPS.
