[AutoNoob]

Originally Posted by srini1785

Look at it this way. Its a way of asserting authority based on a social structure established by car model ownership. An informal survey may have already established that the majority of the peons have nothing less than a Wagon R themselves. So anything less than a Carnival would have had disastrous consequences on smooth running of Govt command hierarchy.

Dear friend, I get the sarcasm in your post.

However, their are always certain perks commensurate with the position one holds. These officers (IAS, IPS and many more) take care of very important responsibilities for right from the root levels to higher up. So, some perks are OK.

I have couple of friends in similar positions and, thus, understand their work situation is quite demanding.

That said, it should not be a license for lavish spendings, like in this case. Such brainless decisions show 'don't give a damn' attitude while wasting tax payers' money.

As many have pointed out, an Innova is ideal vehicle for such positions, due to its comfort, ruggedness, reliability and the way it ages. However, even in this case, buying a new vehicle every time a new officer comes in will be criminal. Existing vehicle must be maintained properly and used till its useful life.

Same goes with renovating the offices whenever a new officer comes in.

[dailydriver]

KIA Carnival seems to be the flavour of the season. An important office bearer of an organization that claims to represent more than five lakh government employees in Karnataka uses this as his official vehicle to travel around. It replaced a humble Ambassador.

x x x

Although a comfortable vehicle goes a long way in alleviating the hardships faced by officers on the field dispensing their executive duties, it is their grossly unethical misuse that gets my goat.

A few years ago, I had a colleague who happened to be the Deputy Commissioner's ( same as the Collector in the instant case) wife. A well kept Corolla used to ferry her to the workplace and back, took care of her personal travels and pilgrimages and even dropped the lady's coworkers across the town.

x x x

Staying with the state of Telangana, just as this thread caught my attention, I was reminded of the following news:

Collectors touch CM KCR’s feet, seek his blessings

Taking everyone by surprise, Siddipet and Kamareddy Collectors, P Venkatrama Reddy and A Sarath respectively, touched the feet of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao as a mark of respect during the inauguration of the integrated collector’s complexs in their respective districts, on Sunday.

The scene was more or less similar at both the places. As soon as the Chief Minister, after inaugurating the collector office complexes, entered the collectors’ chambers, the two collectors took his blessings.In Siddipet, Venkatrama Reddy bent forward and touched the CM’s feet. Soon, Reddy’s wife, son and brother followed suit. As Reddy touched Rao’s feet, the latter dropped sacred rice (akshinthalu) on Reddy and blessed him.

In Kamareddy too, Sarath took the Chief Minister’s blessings by touching his feet twice after KCR entered his new chamber to take a look...

Cultural practices and personal beliefs aside, this act failed to find favor with the press and the public.

x x x

Disclaimer: No political affiliations or interests. Just sharing a piece of news that is related to the dramatis personae mentioned in the title of the thread.

[Bnr12]

This is what exactly we need in the middle of a pandemic. Not vaccinations or economic revival but luxury vans for government officials.

But I’ll have to admit government cars in Telangana are really good. For instance the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation(GHMC) have ISUZU D-MAX V-cross vehicles in their fleet. The perfect 4*4 vehicle for emergencies like Hyderabad floods that occurred in 2020. Forget disaster mitigation.
IAS, IPS officers and ministers get Toyota Fortuners.
Innovas for police officers. Comfortable car to take naps in.
And the head of the state travel in style.
Toyota Land Cruiser * 2
Land Cruiser Prado * 5
Couple of fortuners and innovas.

[LivingCars]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Out of curiosity, what are the job responsibilities of a "Collector"? Local taxes and stuff like that?

The collector comes under Revenue and Disaster Management Department within the state administrative machinery. Their primarily responsibility was collection of land revenue (which continued from the days of the British Raj and hence the name "collector") and dealing with all the administrative matters in the district.
Also all the government scheme, expenditures like the ones being done in the Covid situation require the approval of the COLLECTOR.
Having closely worked with these officers, small towns in which they need to stay i feel these perks are a good motivator for these highly qualified individuals. Now the price range of the vehicle depends on the fiscal deficit situation of the state

[AutoNoob]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Staying with the state of Telangana, just as this thread caught my attention, I was reminded of the following news:

Collectors touch CM KCR’s feet, seek his blessings

Am I the only one to feel this connection :

Touching boss' feet 'to seek bessings' = Boot Licking

Touching boss' feet in public 'to seek bessings' = Boot Licking Maximal

and in return one gets a big boastful blessing (car).

[NoLurkerForLong]

Originally Posted by AutoNoob

Am I the only one to feel this connection :

Touching boss' feet 'to seek bessings' = Boot Licking

Touching boss' feet in public 'to seek bessings' = Boot Licking Maximal

and in return one gets a big boastful blessing (car).

There is more than touching the feet.

The babudom knows all the tricks in the book for technical corruption. They just share a little bit with their political masters and get their share of the cake. Just plain old quid-pro-quo

You get a chance every 5 years to remove politicians from power structure, but not these rotten bandits

[AKSarkar1]

Telangana has always been known for giving their UPSC/PSC commissioned officers nice rides. I believe it was in around 2015 or 2017 when Collector and similar ranking posts in other services e.g. IPS got Toyota Fortuners.

While one can make a logical case for a car like Fortuner since it is known to be a workhorse and definitely a pragmatic choice, I'm not sure if the same can be said about the Carnival. Also interesting to see that they got an official car change in such a short period of time, I would have expected a Toyota Fortuner to last longer...

In Maharashtra civil service, we get by with our humble Ciaz or if lucky an Innova, something as luxurious as the Carnival is not even a choice for us. There are yet officers known to me who are usually close to 11-year-old Tata/Mahindra cars.

From a budgeting perspective in terms of ROI, it would be interesting to see how the Carnivals stand the test of time since government cars are extensively and might I say realistically used in non-ideal conditions.

[sandeepmohan]

Do we know how much the Telangana Government pay for these Kia's? I am sure it will be a lot lower than what we pay for them. Maybe they went with a Kia as they could get it down to the price of a Toyota Innova.

[msa.30789]

Spending lavishinly in public money be secondary. For govt officials and their standard of maintenance, anything more than a rough Bolero or Scorpio is too much. Don't know, who knows inside three years we may see these Carnivals scrapped.

[vigneshkumar31]

At the outset, I'll state squarely that I'm all support for proper utilisation of tax payer's money and do not condone splurging on unnecessary luxuries for office bearers.
But I would also like to present a contrarian view to the popular opinion on this Carnival case.

To first put numbers in perspective, even 30 Carnivals won't cost more than 12 Crores, which is chum change in the larger scheme of things and the magnitude of revenue that the Govt and these collectors handle. Much more is swindled in road contracts across 10km in the district.
The public award of Kia to the collectors, is a goodwill gesture from the CM to motivate these collectors. In our country where size matters and road kings rule, a collector pulling up in a rattly bolero won't be taken seriously by the mining baron sitting in the white Fortuner who he is confronting for illegal mining. The Carnival adds clout and cred to this Govt emissary.
Also the Govt is losing talent to alternative jobs available aplenty today something which was not the case a few decades ago where the Govt Jobs were the reserve of the creme da la creme of the society's talent pool.

A similarly aged IT company executive drives swanky BMW on company lease while we expect and wish that the collector who passed one of the toughest civil sevice exams in the world to drive a wagon R to discharge his duties.
Th

Note; There are rotten Babus everywhere, but it's getting too difficult to .motivate and retain the few good ones. We need good collectors for good governance regardless of the Governing party.
If any thing, we should direct our anger towards uneducated history sheeted corrupt politicos who run 5 yr mints rather than well qualified officials commuting their career lives to service. .

[pkk077]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

Corolla, like Civic will give you big bills as they age

Says who? My friend owned a Corolla and I own a Civic and thankfully we have not seen these big bills. Every car needs good maintenance and that's all you need with the Japs.

[cooldude1988765]

Originally Posted by AKSarkar1

While one can make a logical case for a car like Fortuner since it is known to be a workhorse and definitely a pragmatic choice, I'm not sure if the same can be said about the Carnival. Also interesting to see that they got an official car change in such a short period of time, I would have expected a Toyota Fortuner to last longer... .

The carnivals were given to the additional collectors. I think they were using previous generation Innovas earlier which were most likely erstwhile collector cars before they received an upgrade to the Fortuner.
The collectors are still using the Fortuners.

Thread title needs to be changed to Additonal Collectors in Telangana get Kia Carnivals.

Also for the most part roads in Telangana are quite decent even in remote villages. Albeit I do agree that a Crysta would have been a better bet considering the usage scenario.

[Lowflyer23]

Honest armed forces senior officials are questioned for using gypsy and Scorpios for official work, the units are asked for travel details and fuel expenses to the last drop. On the other hand we have these babus getting luxury vehicles which as we all know will be used more for their private use than official work.

Here in Delhi, even retired bureaucrats use Govt. official vehicles (mostly crystas) daily, the sad reality of our country.

[SchrödingersCar]

Originally Posted by Lowflyer23

Here in Delhi, even retired bureaucrats use Govt. official vehicles (mostly crystas) daily, the sad reality of our country.

+1. These kind of incidents are rampant.

I miss those days (only in this context) when the only choice was the good old Amby, for babus and the Prime Minister alike.

[poised2drive]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nati...ancial-cr.html

Not sure which variant but I assume these are mid or top spec. Probably first instance in country where govt. officials get fleet of Carnival.

Not first- The other Telugu State, AP, got its High Court Judges the Kia Limousines .
Saw the Fleet in KIA Vijayawada in April this year I believe.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/sta...e-2282116.html

As a Gazetted Officer, here is my 2-paisa:

The District Magistrate (DM) ( aka District Collector) is the head of the entire Administrative Machinery and is the link between his jurisdiction and the Center/State Govt and is responsible for all Govt works ( though other Departments have their own hierarchy and do not answer to the DM directly , but the DM can always call upon any Govt employee in his district) . And almost thrice a week, the DM would be on move either for tours or site inspections or Official Duties . So a car with good suspension makes things easier for them ( Imagine journeying 150 km a day with unlimited pit stops)

Kia Carnivals might make the life of them easier. I won't talk about the comfort or the longevity of these cars, but- In the Combined AP, the average size of district was about 12,000 Sq.km - about 110 * 110 km2 . Now, in Telangana , the average size shrunk to 3400 sq km - almost 60*60 Km2 . So the touring has considerably reduced.

And the timing of this event is distressing. When the whole world is reeling under economic meltdown and the Finance Minister of your state complains about the falling revenue, providing luxury cars to a tune of 10 Cr. is a wrong gesture and is a political stunt, albeit wrongly timed.

The DMs have their own budgets (and many of them do buy cars like Innova Crysta or Fortuners on their allocated budgets)

A Class I Gazzetted Officer in Public Works Departments is allotted Rs. 35,000/- pm for his vehicle hire regardless of his touring .
So , apart from a marketing/advertising game, it is pointless to provide the vehicles to those who are already empowered to buy them.

Originally Posted by vigneshkumar31

In our country where size matters and road kings rule, a collector pulling up in a rattly bolero won't be taken seriously by the mining baron sitting in the white Fortuner who he is confronting for illegal mining. The Carnival adds clout and cred to this Govt emissary.

I can only partially agree.
I agree that Size matters on our roads , but I believe even an Ambassador or a Ciaz brandishing the Indian Emblem and Flag is enough to make the Swanky SUVs come to its heels . It is the power the emblem of the Indian Govt carries.

Originally Posted by vigneshkumar31

Also the Govt is losing talent to alternative jobs available aplenty today something which was not the case a few decades ago where the Govt Jobs were the reserve of the creme da la creme of the society's talent pool.

A similarly aged IT company executive drives swanky BMW on company lease while we expect and wish that the collector who passed one of the toughest civil service exams in the world to drive a wagon R to discharge his duties.

.

The Payscales of the Govt employees have taken a huge leap and even a Seasoned Clerical Class employee can maintain a hatchback with his salary ( not the other kind of money) . The salaries of the Govt employees are reasonable , though nothing special when compared to the Pvt. Sector. But the money was never the forte of the Civil Services. Nevertheless, the IAS will never lose the sheen ( until any revolutionary reforms , which is a dire need of the hour) given the status and power they enjoy and the benefits & luxuries enjoyed by the IAS Officers gives the money earned by any Corporate employee run for its money .