In an RTI filed by Dhanraj S Pillai, a software engineer from Kochi was in shock when the RTI revealed that Kerala Power Minister and senior CPI-M leader M. M. Mani’s official car had tyre changes 34 times in 30 months.
The RTI was filed by Pillai in the first month of October and received the reply on Tuesday, October 29. Dhanraj S Pillai occasionally raises RTI queries on social issues who is a software engineer by profession.
Dhanraj S Pillai said:
“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.”
Shri M.M. Mani should be appointed as the “Ambassador of Ferrari” ! As per an RTI enquiry, he has had 34 tyre changes in 30 months for his official vehicle i.e. 1 tyre change every month. pic.twitter.com/SiF1HrdTAI
— AIPC Thiruvananthapuram (@AIPCTVM1) October 30, 2019
Is he a car tyre dealer?
— Narayan Srikanth (@NarayanSrikanth) October 30, 2019
RTI reveals Kerala power minister’s Innova got its tyres changed 34 times in a span of two years.
Is he running a business of selling second hand tyre?
— Asheem PK (@peekeymon) October 29, 2019
As the news was getting headlined everywhere, Minister M. M. Mani took Facebook to explain his side.
“He said he belonged to a high-range area (mountainous) and rubber burnt fast there. Let trolls enjoy it. During this period I traveled 1,24,075 km. Most of these travels were in hilly terrains of Idukki. We all know in such terrains life of tyres will be short.”
M. M. Mani added— All cars are monitored by state tourism department which deals with all types of vechile issues.
According to tyre manufacturers, the normal life of a tyre is 5 years or a distance between 25,000 to 30,000 km.
