There are Pooja Khedkars in all departments and echelons of the government, not only the IAS. In Salem, Tamil Nadu, where I was the Divisional Railway Manager, I had an Additional DRM, who had a bloated sense of entitlement. One day he came to me and said that he had asked the Police Commissioner Salem if he could put a red beacon on his car. He claimed that the CP had agreed, though verbally. Salem is a small-middle sized town and the DRM, or the ADRM are important people. But they are not entitled to a red or blue light atop their cars. So, the police commissioner, out of courtesy, had said that he would ignore the violation if we did want to put red beacons on our cars.
The ADRM thought that he had achieved something great. He suggested that both of us, the DRM and ADRM, should adorn our respective cars with red beacons. I told him that a childhood friend of mine was the Principal Secretary, Home of the State. The Police Commissioner was aware of the fact and that if I ever decided to put the red beacon, he would surely wink at that that. I told the ADRM that I wasn’t interested in such silly, ostentatious, and unauthorised show of power.
The ADRM was disappointed. But he was so drunk with his status that he couldn’t do without the red beacon. So, he asked me if at least he could put the red light atop his car. I told him to go ahead if he was so enamoured of his status.
The guy actually began to flaunt the red beacon on his car. So, Salem was a Railway Division, where the DRM traveled in a plain car and his assistant in a VIP car. Soon thereafter, however, the Government disallowed such beacons on all cars.
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