J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah may have said ‘good bye’ to the use of red beacon fitted official car but more than half a dozen Cabinet Ministers in the Council of Ministers are still married to this symbol of power.
For them the craze of travelling in a red beacon fitted car has not died down even after the apex court had directed the State Governments to drastically restrict the list of VIPs using the red beacon in their cars in December 2013.
Each day when their cavalcades enter the premises of Civil Secretariat their red beacons are lined up in a row outside the main Civil Secretariat building.
Interestingly, the Chief Minister’s official car remain parked on the opposite side sans red beacon.
The day apex court had issued directions to restrict the use of red beacons, Omar had expressed his personal views on the microblogging site. “It’s amazing how some people are married to this symbol of power. If the PM doesn’t need a red beacon why should anyone else”.
“I must admit I’ll be happy to see this red beacon culture go. I never use one on my private vehicles and don’t see the need for one anyway.”
“I look forward to instructing my people to remove the red beacons from my official vehicles also now,” Omar had tweeted.
While implementing the apex court order when the State Traffic Police department had initially launched a special drive to check misuse of red beacons the Council of Ministers had also removed their beacons. But these days the flag cars, fitted with red beacon can be regularly seen lined up outside the Civil Secretariat complex.
On Thursday when this correspondent visited the Civil Secretariat half a dozen flag cars with red beacons were parked there.
On inquiry it was revealed senior Cabinet Ministers from the National Conference Abdul Rahim Rather(Finance Minister), Mir Saifullah (law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister), Sajjad Kitchloo (MoS Home), Mohd Akbar lone (Higher Education Minister) were present in the Secretariat along with Congress Ministers Peerzada Mohd Sayeed (Haj and Auqaf Minister) and Raman Bhalla (Housing, Culture and Horticulture Minister).
According to official sources, the State Government is yet to amend the Motor Vehicles Rules and under the existing rules the council of Ministers have not committed any violation.