THOSE DEPRIVED of their right to use a red/blue beacon on their vehicles have started raising questions over the very Government Order (GO) that authorises certain officials, politicians and others to use a beacon.
This time it is the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) Chairman, Vijoy Kumar who has challenged the logic behind allowing some and disallowing others to use a beacon. He has shot off a letter to the Chief Secretary demanding that he and his colleagues be allowed to use a beacon on their cars.
In his letter sent to the Chief Secretary on Friday, Kumar regretted that there was no transparency and no logical criteria in the government’s selection of VIPs entitled to a beacon. He pointed out that there could be only two grounds on the basis of which the government provided facilities to the officials and others.
It was either seniority or pay-scale. “ My service regulations allow me to be equalled to a High Court judge or the Chief Secretary so far as the question of getting various facilities is concerned. Even the Commission members’ rank is equivalent to that of the Chief Secretary or the Secretary in Government of India and as their basic salary is Rs 26,000 per month,” he stressed adding, “My pay-scale is even higher than that of the Chief Secretary or a Secretary in the Central Government.”
Moreover, the UPERC was a quasi-judicial body and deserved even better treatment, he stressed. This is not for the first time that Kumar has written to the government. In fact, he had written earlier too, but in vain. “I have been writing to the government demanding my and my colleagues’ authorisation for using a beacon for the last two years,” he said when contacted, adding, “ But they do not even reply.”
{{/usCountry}}Moreover, the UPERC was a quasi-judicial body and deserved even better treatment, he stressed. This is not for the first time that Kumar has written to the government. In fact, he had written earlier too, but in vain. “I have been writing to the government demanding my and my colleagues’ authorisation for using a beacon for the last two years,” he said when contacted, adding, “ But they do not even reply.”
{{/usCountry}}Kumar is not the only officer to have questioned the State government’s ‘pick and choose’ policy on the red/blue beacons. Many officers from various other departments like trade tax go on writing to the government from time to time, demanding beacons for their officials. Since the beacons are a status symbol in UP and the GO on beacons is bereft of any logic, hence the resentment in the deprived lot.