Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 22 (IANS): While stirring up the hornet's nest over the personal staff of Kerala Ministers receiving lifelong pension after serving for only two years thereby causing a huge loss to the exchequer, state Governor Arif Mohammed has now come under criticism for the requirement of a brand new Mercedes Benz.

The file related to this has come up before Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the new vehicle is to cost Rs 85 lakhs.

Earlier, the Governor was peeved that Kerala has the highest number of personal staff to Ministers, which is in excess of 20 and is a huge financial burden to the state.

He has now called for all the files related to the appointments of personal staff, saying that he will seriously look into the matter and do the needful.

Even as he was speaking tough about the exchequer loss, the demand for the new luxury car came up.

The reason that was given from the Governor's office is that as per the VVIP travel protocol, any car which has done in excess of 1 lakh km has to be replaced and the present Mercedes Benz is over a decade old and has done 1.5 lakh km travelling.