Chouhan spent over Rs 15 crore on air tours as CM

BHOPAL: Shivraj Singh Chouhan has till date spent Rs 15.66 crore on air tours, including nearly Rs eight crore on private planes and helicopters, as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister.

This was informed by Chouhan to the Congress Deputy Leader of the Legislature Party Choudhry Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi in his written reply to an unstarred question in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

Chouhan informed the House that he has spent Rs 7,75,49,500 on his tours undertaken in the state plane and helicopter, Rs 2,28,49,153 on private planes and Rs 5,62,87,346 on a private chopper.

To another question from Purshottam Dangi (Congress) on the issue, the Chief Minister said in a written reply that from April 1, 2009 till date he had travelled 417 times in the state plane and 178 times in the state helicopter.

After Chouhan, the services of the state plane were utilised maximum number of times (35) by Industries Minister Kailash Vijaywargiya, followed by General Administration Minister Kanhaiyalal Agrawal (17), Urban Development Minister Babulal Gaur and Public Relation Minister Laxmikant Sharma, 13 each, Home Minister Uma Shankar Gupta (12) and Tribal Affairs Minister Vijay Shah (11) among others.

Three Cabinet Ministers - Raghavji (Finance), Nagendra Singh Nagod (PWD) and Gopal Bhargava (Panchayat and Rural Development) have not utilised the services of the state plane so far.