KOCHI: Kerala Power Minister MM Mani, who is known for his quick wit and funny one-liners attracting a huge number of followers on his Facebook page, is now finding himself at the receiving end of social media trolls after an RTI reply said his official car had 34 tyres replaced over a period of two years.
The revelation by an assistant executive engineer of the tourism department was made in reply to an RTI query by Kochi resident S Dhanuraj.
Krishnankutty, Minister for Water Resources, and AK Saseendran, Minister for Transport, stood in the second spot after they replaced 13 tyres during the same period.
Though the RTI reply did not mention the cost involved, at the going rate of around Rs 6,000 per tyre, the Power Minister may have spent about Rs 2.04 lakh on tyres for his Innova Cresta (diesel). Social media was full of memes making fun of the minister for the frequent tyre replacements.
Responding to the criticism, Mani, in a Facebook post, said it is important to look at how many kilometres the vehicle has run and where has it travelled during the two years, before criticising him. On ordinary roads, the mileage of the Cresta is 20,000 km, he pointed out, adding that his vehicle travelled a total of 1,24,075 km in two years.
The minister, who is the MLA from Udumbanchola in Idukki district, said one should also look at the hilly terrain of the district, where the roads are steep and zig-zag in nature, making the life of the tyres much lower than those running on ordinary terrain. "This means the age of the tyre will be much less in hilly terrain. Still, the vehicle has got a mileage of 14,597 km," he said.
Also, the tyres are replaced neither by the minister or the minister's office but by the technical department of the tourism department, he clarified.