Civic body pays hefty rentals for hired cars

Nellore: Even though, Nellore city is Municipal Minister’s own place, there are no measures to save money and revamp the traditional money-consuming mechanism. Even as Smart tag has been proposed, there is no smartness in the activities till now after it was upgraded as a Corporation. Normally, one can prefer vehicle on rental basis for saving huge expenditure on vehicles.

But, in case a civic body, it may not be appropriate as it highly impacts the revenue sources if they prefer rentals as the officials continue to use them even for their personal needs too. Nellore Municipal Corporation reportedly paying vehicle rents to the owners a minimum of Rs 6 lakh per month which comes to around Rs 70-75 lakh per annum for more than 15 vehicles.

The range of rentals was from Rs 35,000-60,000 per month from the level of an official cadre up to the Mayor. On an average, they were paying Rs 1,200 to 2,000 per day besides fuel costs. But, the interesting thing is they were paying these huge rents even to the old vehicles that are not eligible for such hefty rentals.

Normally, government provides vehicle facility to the Mayor, Commissioner, Additional Commissioner, city planner, senior level staff of revenue wing, engineers of various sections, health officials, examiners and others. In case of senior officials, they are eligible for standard vehicle with perfect condition for hassle-free movement in the city and around.

As they are paying huge rents, they can either engage a branded or new car or can adjust with an old vehicle purchased by the civic body for saving money. “But, in Nellore, as some politicos and officials who have nexus, vehicles are being engaged basing on the influence and not on their condition. We are keeping mum on the instances since they scold us and target during meetings.

We are wasting huge chunk of budget on the rentals and should have acquired new ones with the amount we have been paying annually,” said a senior official, who is connected to the revenue wing. The modus operandi is typical as some politicos purchase old vehicles and hand over to some outsourcing employees and they put the vehicle for rental to the civic body.

They also engage drivers to the vehicles. Though they are not following rules and regulations action cannot be taken against them as they were engaged on contract/outsourcing basis. “Civic body can purchase a medium level vehicle in the range of Rs 5-6 lakh for official purpose. They can buy at least 15-20 new or old vehicles with the amount being spent for rentals.

But, this is not being done as politicos never allow such economy measures since they used to exploit for their own greed,” yelled a Corporator from the opposition. He added that no one accuse the owner of the vehicle even though the vehicles get frequent repairs and hinder officials business.

A senior official from the planning department said the civic body is considering purchasing new vehicles during next financial year but the issue yet to be finalised.