india

Updated: Oct 30, 2019 20:38 IST

A software engineer from Kochi was in for a shock when the reply to his Right to Information (RTI) query on Tuesday, October 29, revealed that Kerala Power Minister and senior CPI-M leader M M Mani’s official car had tyre changes 34 times in 30 months.

“At times I file RTI queries on social issues. But this really shocked me. For an ordinary person, it is difficult to imagine that his (Mani’s) two-year-old car had so many tyre changes. It is good if they realize they are burning tax-payers money,” petitioner Dhanraj S Pillai said. An assistant executive engineer of the state tourism department furnished the reply to the RTI query filed by Pillai in October first week.

As soon Pillai, also a social activist, posted the reply on social media, netizens had a gala time taking potshots at the ‘minister’s power.’

“After all he’s the power minister, he needs extra power,” commented one. Another said the minister was trying to help rubber cultivators of the state by creating a ‘tyre-yojana progrmme.’ Some others cited poor condition of roads and gave a clean chit to the minister.

“If the minister’s chauffer-driven brand new car had this problem what about the plight of poor taxi drivers,” lamented another. “Thank God, only tyres were changed. Occupants of the car must have been changed at least 10 times by now,” another social media user Madhu Lal said.

Following the unwanted media attention, the minister took to Facebook explaining the reasons for the frequent tyre changes saying he belonged to a high-range area (mountainous) and rubber burnt fast there. “Let trolls enjoy it. During this period I travelled 1, 24, 075 kms. Most of these travels were in hilly terrains of Idukki. We all know in such terrains life of tyres will be short,” he added.

He said all state cars are monitored by the state tourism department, which usually deals with vehicle servicing and other issues. “Some comments give an impression that I sold off tyres to make money. I just explained it to clear this. It is a joke, let them enjoy,” he said in his post.

As the RTI and minister’s reply went viral, car-maker Toyota, which was tagged by many people in their posts, came out with a stock reply: “We regret the inconvenience caused. Kindly help us with your contact details so that we can look into this matter and assist you,” Team Toyota replied to some of the posts. The minister’s official vehicle is Innova Crysta.

Mani is known to stir controversies. Addressing a rally five years ago in Idukk, Mani, then district secretary of the CPI (M), had said the party often resorted to political killings and warned T P Chandrasekhran’s murder (Marxist rebel) was not the last one. He gave a blow-by-blow account of how the party had carried out these murders.

“We had prepared a list of 13 and killed the first three. The first one was shot dead, second beaten to death and third was hacked to death,” he had said. Later he was removed from the party post.

In other information revealed by the RTI question, forest minister K Raju also changed tyre of his vehicle 19 times in the same period and Chief Minsiter Pinarayi Vijayan 11 times.

According to tyre manufacturers, the normal life of a tyre is 5 years or a distance between 25,000 to 30,000 kms.