A year later, LDA gets Rs 2.2 Crore for ashes immersion function of Vajpayee

NEW DELHI: The Uttar Pradesh government has sorted out the issue of a Rs 2.23 crore bill incurred on a function for the immersion of the ashes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the Gomti river, about a year after the death of the former Prime Minister.

The UP governor last month authorised the release of the amount to the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA). The money will go from the budget of the information department of UP and accounted under the head of events and advertisements.

The LDA had incurred the cost of setting up a stage, barricading and lights and sound systems for the function on August 23 last year, but was not told then that who would reimburse it the cost of Rs 2.54 crore. The LDA raised the issue with the UP government first on January 9 and again on March 15, saying it had not got the funds, leading to an exchange of communication among various state departments.


The information department said there was no provision in its budget for such a function and asked senior authorities to intervene. The LDA chairman was cited in June as saying the state government had to pay for the function, prompting senior government officials to intervene and assure that the matter would be amicably sorted out.

The sanction order by the governor on August 8 suggests that the LDA sent in a fresh request with a revised amount, Rs 2.23 crore instead of Rs 2.54 crore. The information department had submitted the bill to the governor for his sanction on June 24.