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Virbhadra spent ₹111-cr on chopper rides as CM: Mankotia
He also demanded the government to issue a white paper on expenses incurred on chief minister, ministers, legislators and bureaucrats in last 10 years.
Even as the clamour over hike in travelling allowance for legislators refuses to die down, former Congress minister Vijai Singh Mankotia on Sunday alleged that former chief minister Virbhadra Singh spent about ₹111 crore on his helicopter rides in five years from 2013-2017.
“He (Virbhadra) drew an average salary of ₹2.35 lakh per month and claimed travelling expenses amounting ₹ 2.68 lakh in a year,” said Mankotia, while addressing a press conference here.
“Things seem no different in the BJP regime and cost of helicopter rides is much more than previous years as cess on aviation fuel and rates of flying per hour have gone up enormously,” he said while providing copies of documents obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) to the media.
The 79-year-old leader said he had to fight with authorities for almost seven to eight months to obtain the information as officials in the secretariat tried not to provide him the details.
The details of the helicopter rides of the former chief minister were provided for the year 2013-2014 and per month expenses were about ₹1.51 crore apart from extra flying hours costing ₹4.35 crore. The information related to his salary and allowances pertains only to 2017.
“What is the justification of spending such huge public money on one person, particularly when the state is under enormous debt burden?,” Mankotia said, adding that he will soon file a RTI requesting information about expenses incurred by current chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on helicopter rides.
He also demanded the government to issue a white paper on expenses incurred on chief minister, ministers, legislators and bureaucrats in last 10 years.
Mankotia said as far as he knows, the present government too has taken substantial amount of loans in last two years to meet its expenses. He also raised doubts on the success of the Global Investors’ Meet being organised by the state government in November.
“How will the government attract investors when everything in the state, from economy to the road infrastructure, is in a bad shape,” he said.
