Madhya Pradesh CM spent Rs 3 crore on five-day US trip: RTI reply

Sidhartha Dutta (IANS) 17 August 2015

The RTI reply revealed that the expenditure for hotel rooms and air travel was Rs.30 lakh ($46,000) each ($5,750 per head), while Rs.25 lakh was spent on taxi rides, Rs.6 lakh went for daily perks

An eight-member delegation led by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan spent close to Rs.3 crore ($465,000/$58,000 per head) on a five-day US trip in February, which included giving expensive gifts to investors, the reply to an RTI querry has revealed.

The reply, received from the Madhya Pradesh Trade and Investment Facilitation Corporation Limited by whistle blower Ajay Dubey in July, revealed that on its visit to the US to meet American business leaders and potential investors, the delegation spent Rs.198,421 on gifts.

It also mentioned that 10 woollen shawls worth Rs.119,990 (Rs.11,999 each) were gifted to the guests, apart from ties and silver idols worth Rs.78,431. The visit was from January 31 to February 4 on the invitation of the US-India Business Council to meet business community leaders and investors.

The RTI reply also revealed that the expenditure for hotel rooms and air travel was Rs.30 lakh ($46,000) each ($5,750 per head), while Rs.25 lakh was spent on taxi rides, Rs.6 lakh went for daily perks and Rs.1.30 crore in rental for the 'Friends of MP Conclave' venue. Another Rs.75 lakh was spent on other promotional and miscellaneous charges. The total expenditure was Rs.2.96 crore over five days.

Among the others who accompanied the chief minister were Yashodhara Raje Scindia, the minister for commerce, industry and employment, Mohammed Suleman, principal secretary, department of commerce, industry & employment; S.K. Mishra, principal secretary to the chief minister; Vivek Aggarwal, secretary to the chief minister; Anupam Rajan, MD, of the MP Laghu Udyog Nigam Ltd. (MP Small Scale Industries Corporation); Manish Singh, MD, Madhya Pradesh Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam (Indore) Limited; and Devhuti Bakshi of Ernst & Young.

"The chief minister was planning another foreign tour to Sweden recently, but this was cancelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To spend almost Rs.3 crore on a five-day tour to the US is huge. It is a lot of money for a state like Madhya Pradesh. Moreover, making a foreign tour to meet potential investors when Vyapam scam was at its peak is not acceptable," Dubey told IANS.

Madhya Pradesh has been mired in the Vyapam scam for years but the irregularities eventually came to light when 20 people were arrested in 2013 for impersonating candidates appearing for the 2009 medical entrance examination.

Forty-five people associated with the Vyapam scam have died - mostly unnaturally or under mysterious circumstances.

The CBI has already registered 67 FIRs and launched 12 preliminary inquiries into the Vyapam scam.

Comments

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Anand Vaidya

1 decade ago

How much Gov money did Rahul Gandhi spend when he vanished to some far off country (Thailand?) for 56+ days?

How much did Sonia Gandhi spend from our tax money on her medical tours to USA (estimates put it at 1800 Crores).

Any RTI on these?

Srinivas

1 decade ago

a simple search on expedia or booking.com would have given an idea of the cost of premium hotels in whichever cities the CM visited - A 5* hotel in Europe is usually around 200-300 Euros only, so should be similar in USA too.

Thus we can easily conclude that this was a scam - someone made money. Hopefully the CM who claims to be clean should find the guy(s) behind this and their heads should roll.

Gupta

1 decade ago

We will spend all our life monitoring these tit bits of expenditure and keep missing the big picture. The total expenditure of central and state governments annually is a staggering 25 lac crore rupees approximately. But we will be lost in the details of these petty few lacs and crores on foreign trips and Parliament expenses and on the other hand scams of thousands and lacs of crores go unnoticed. Journalists in India need to grow up to focus on real issues rather than waste time on such articles. Spend the knowledge and energy on better things!

Ravi Patnaik

1 decade ago

To present the right perspective, the columnist should have provided comparative data for similar visits by CMs of other states as also the effects of such visits by state CMs. Otherwise, raw data presented with out context gives disproportionate picture, particularly when it relates to activities undertaken in western nations.