Kochi/ Thiruvananthapuram : Former state police chief Loknath Behera has landed in a paint controversy with a Kalamassery native alleging that Mr Behera had ordered to use a particular brand of paint in all the police stations while he was heading the police force.
Mr Girish Babu has filed a complaint before the Vigilance director against the order, and, interestingly, Mr Behera himself is the present director.
He has also filed a plea before state police chief T.P. Senkumar alleging '3 crore corruption in the deal.
The complainant has requested the state police chief to withdraw the order issued on April 26 and asked the Vigilance director to carry out a probe to find out the corruption behind it.
Mr Babu sought a probe into the executive directive issued by Mr Behera to paint police stations and the offices of circle inspectors and DySPs using the colours of the Dulux paint company.
According to Mr Babu, Mr Behera had ordered to paint the exterior of police establishments using a particular brand—white paint for buttress, verticals, drops and borders of buildings and white enamel paint for windows. Specific paint was mentioned for the interiors also.
“As per the executive order, around 470 police stations have to be painted according to the new colour code.” According to Mr Girish Babu, paint worth Rs 3 crore has to be purchased. The police chief had come out with the directive without any government sanction or order.
“There were no tender proceedings adopted to use the paint of one single company for colouring the entire police stations,” Mr Girish Babu said.
Senkumar denies probe on ex-DGP
With the infighting at the police headquarters embarrassing the government, state police chief T.P. Senkumar called on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and clarified his stand on Thursday.
He told the Chief Minister that he had not ordered any probe against his predecessor Lonath Behera.
He had shifted a junior superintendent of the confidential section T-branch at police headquarters as there were several adverse remarks against her, including suppressing a petition of a Koduvally MLA Karat Razack. He told the CM that the reports that he had ordered a probe against Mr Behera for allegedly specifying a brand of paint for all police stations was false as he had only sought remarks on a media report in this regard.
