Punjab government has approved over 400 luxury vehicles for the chief minister, ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats, a Transport Department order said on Friday.
The new vehicles are likely to cost around Rs.80 crore on the state exchequer.
The new authorisation provides 16 Land Cruisers, including two bullet proof, for the chief minister, 13 Mahindra Scorpios for Chief minister staff, 14 Maruti Dzire/Honda Amaze/Ertiga for the officers on special duty (OSDs) to the chief minister.
All ministers will now have Toyota Fortuner or Toyota Crysta in place of Toyota Camry, the MLAs authorisation has been upgraded from Toyota Innova to Toyota Innova Crysta.
An official said, only the norms for vehicle entitlement had been approved and no purchase order had been issued.
Farm organisations, including the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), criticised the order and said that the Congress government should think about improving the living standard of the common man instead of putting extra burden on state exchequer.
