Delhi LG nod to Manish Sisodia’s US trip, but terms apply
A senior Raj Niwas official said while approving the proposal, the LG has highlighted a “contradiction” in the file regarding the funding for the trip.
The lieutenant’s governor office has granted an “in-principle” approval to a trip to United States by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and two Delhi government officials to attend a convention on March 23, officials aware of the matter said on Friday, even as they added that the nod was given “subject to requisite clearances”.
A senior Raj Niwas official said while approving the proposal, the LG has highlighted a “contradiction” in the file regarding the funding for the trip. While the education department has said that the cost of the visit will be borne by the organisers and there will be no financial liability on the state government, the proposal mentions that the expenses for the deputy CMs visit will be borne by the government of the national capital territory of Delhi, the official said.
“LG has agreed in principle for the proposed visit, but it will be subject to requisite clearances and completion of other formalities,” the LG office said.
The approval comes a day after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said that while other states were learning from Delhi’s progress in the field of education, “dirty politics” is being played over the state government’s plan to send a group of teachers to Finland for training. The trip has emerged as a major sticking point in the power tussle between the AAP government in Delhi and the LG office.
Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s education minister, is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the TESOL Education Convention to be organised in Portland city, Oregon, USA, on March 21-24.
“Despite noting that both the statements regarding funding for the trip were contradictory, and it was not clear as to whether the Delhi government will bear the expenses for Sisodia’s visit or not, the LG gave in-principle approval for the proposed visit. The visit will be subject to the requisite clearances from the central government, including FCRA clearances, as is the case with every foreign visit undertaken by any minister or officer,” the LG office added.
There was no immediate response to the development from Sisodia or the Delhi government.
The TESOL convention website, www.tesol.org/tesol-convention-2013, lists Sisodia among four keynote speakers. Besides the Delhi deputy CM, the other three speakers are: Sammy Ramsey, Endowed Professor of Entomology at the University of Colorado Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department; Joyce King, senior lecturer, Lund University, Sweden; and Asmaa AbuMezied, an economic development and gender justice expert.
TESOL International Association, formerly Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, is the largest professional organisation for teachers of English as a second or foreign language.
