Bengaluru: The State Legislature, based on recommendation from Bengaluru Police, plans to install Global Positioning Systems (GPS) on official vehicles of sitting and former Legislators, a hitherto unheard of move. 

The decision though comes in the wake of allegations that Legislators’ vehicles are being used to ferry huge amounts of cash. 

Police are already investigating two cases involving the Personal Assistant of former Backward Classes Minister Puttarang Shetty and a staff of incumbent Muzrai Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary. 

The two cases date back to January and February last year, when cops seized Rs. 1.1 crore and Rs. 14 lakh reportedly from official vehicles of the two Legislators at Vidhana Soudha, the State Secretariat. Bengaluru Police are demanding GPS systems to avoid such  nefarious activity. 

The Legislative Council had decided to install GPS systems on all its 38 vehicles, but the move failed due to technical reasons. The fleet includes Innovas, Swift Dzires and Etios. Two months ago, a tender to install high-end Vehicle Tracking Systems (VTS) was floated by the Council Secretariat. The devices were meant to track location, speed, realtime vehicle position, fuel consumption, direction and cost of travel. However, there were no bids. 

Council Chairman Prathap Chandra Shetty blamed “rigid terms and conditions” in tender documents for companies shying away. “We will retender the entire project by relaxing some of the norms,” Shetty said. Secretariat officials say the move will enhance productivity of the fleet, cut pilferage and save on operational costs, which have increased due to skyrocketing prices of petrol and diesel. 

They say it will also ensure efficiency as the device will provide notifications on trip details to ‘owners’ and drivers through a mobile app. But the decision may not be implemented any time soon since the brass at the Secretariat has shown little interest. Of the 70 vehicles in its fleet, sources in the Assembly Secretariat say as many as 23 vehicles have been declared “unsafe.”