An SUV bought by the former BJP government lying unused
The taxpayer has just bought 31 SUVs for Karnataka ministers for Rs. 5 crore: 30 Toyata Innovas at about Rs. 14 lakh each and a Rs. 22-lakh Toyota Fortuner for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Garaged meanwhile at a government guest house in Bangalore are cars, including Innovas, in perfectly good condition, used by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers of the previous Jagadish Shettar regime.
Apart from eight Innovas, there are nine Toyota Corolla Altis, a Renault Fluence and a Chevloret Forester. The
lal battis or red beacons of power and VIP number plates have been stripped off and dumped on the car seats.
Congress ministers who won power in May this year, clearly want no hand-me-downs, though Food Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao says, "See we do not know about the old cars. When new ones are there, we might as well use them."
His colleague J S Anjaneyalu insists he had no preference: "We are using what we got...This is okay."
It is not just a Congress affliction. Before his party was ousted in the Assembly elections, Mr Shettar had ordered 20 new Innovas for his ministers. Ten more were added to the fleet after the Congress expanded its cabinet from 20 to 30 ministers.
In Karnataka, it is a policy that ministers in a new government get new cars. They also get a new car if their vehicle has run for three years or over one lakh kilometres.
The BJP was forced by political upheaval to pick three Chief Ministers in five years. BS Yeddyurappa had a Honda CRV; his successor Sadananda Gowda did too - a new one. Only Mr Shettar, who took over from Mr Gowda last year, did not ask for a new car.
But former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda did, in January this year. He said he wanted a "tall and heavily built" vehicle. Promptly, a Toyota Fortuner was bought.
The cars at Bangalore's Kumara Krupa Guest House, most of them in mint condition, are waiting to be assigned to lesser work than ferrying powerful ministers. On government work in districts perhaps.