Transport dept. seeks details of foreign trips by Kochi metro officials

You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

The Transport department and Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) are on a collision course, with the former seeking details of foreign trips undertaken by metro officials during the past five years without the government’s permission and KMRL denying the charges as baseless.

The details sought included foreign trips by the metro agency’s then managing director Loknath Behera. KMRL officials maintained that the State government’s permission was not needed for the trips, and that the agency had sought the permission of the Chairman, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

The department had further sought the minutes of KMRL’s director board meetings that ratified the officials’ foreign trips and their expenditure as mentioned in the audit reports. Details of the metro agency’s travel policy and the percentage of its budget earmarked for foreign and domestic travel too were sought.

KMRL sources said the agency had replied on August 28 to the letter from the department. Moreover, the metro agency, which is party to a tripatrite agreement with the State and the Centre, operates as per the Central Vigilance Commission guidelines. Under the agreement, KMRL can take independent decisions, including on foreign trips by its officials. In addition, the State government had been informed of the trips, although this was applicable to officials who were still in government service (Mr. Behera had retired from service as the DGP of Kerala), after which he was posted as KMRL managing director. As for the foreign trips of other officials of the metro agency, the managing director’s permission alone was needed, the sources said.

There was no valid reason for having to seek the government’s permission for any of the trips undertaken during the past five years, they added.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.