Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha on Saturday. December 30, hit back at chief minister A Revanth Reddy for his ’22 land cruisers’ remark by saying that the protocol of the chief minister’s convoy is decided by the Security, Intelligence, and police departments.
“No public representative asks for a specific number of cars or security personnel but it is suggested by the Security and Intelligence department experts. Also, how and where to build the convoy is decided by them and is kept a secret…so, it’s obvious that they (Intelligence) placed these vehicles in a place where such facilities are available and they will use the cars when necessary. They don’t tell us those things…” she said.
The MLC further said that the Intelligence performs many processes even without the knowledge of the chief minister.
“But I do not know if the current chief minister is making specific demands. In the last 10 years, we have never asked for specifics in security arrangements….Intelligence has its own budget and they act based on their requirements,” she remarked.
Kavitha further lamented the chief minister’s ‘satirical’ remarks on the subject and said that it is being ‘blown out of proportion.’
On Revanth’s allegation that the cars were “secretly hidden in Vijayawada”, Kavitha said that the BRS leadership has no idea even regarding where the cars were produced and hidden.
“Such remarks lower the stature of the Hon’ble chief minister and its unfortunate” she remarked.
What Revanth said
Former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s government bought 22 Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles, without anybody’s knowledge before the assembly polls, hoping that the BRS government would come back to power so that KCR can use them, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy alleged on Wednesday, December 27.
“After I assumed charge as chief minister, I told officials not to buy new vehicles for me but the previous government bought 22 Land Cruisers and kept them in Vijayawada. Even I did not know about it until 10 days after I became chief minister,” he said.
“I had asked officials to repair old vehicles so that I can use them. The officials then informed me that last time we (the state government) bought 22 Land Cruiser vehicles. They were all in Vijayawada and the then government wanted to bring them after the new Chief Minister (KCR) was sworn in,” he said.
Reddy said he was surprised when officials informed him about the vehicles. “Each vehicle costs Rs 3 crore because they are bulletproof vehicles. This is how KCR has created wealth for the state,” Reddy said sarcastically.
