Frequent fliers in UPA-I, finds RTI

NEW DELHI: When Ms Sonia Gandhi said ���tighten your belts��� some weeks ago, referring to the urgent need for austerity, her voice may not have been music for UPA ministers as records reveal that ministers in the first UPA regime preferred the singsong voice of airlines��� staff world-wide who chortled ���fasten your seat belts.���

Cabinet ministers in the first term of the UPA government spent more than Rs 300 crore on their foreign and domestic travels in the last three years.

The data provided by the Cabinet Secretariat shows more than Rs 137 crore were spent by Cabinet ministers on foreign travels between fiscal 2006-07 and 2008-09, with highest in the year 2007-08, when more than Rs 115 crore were spent by them on such travel. Surprisingly, the expenses incurred on the domestic travels of Cabinet ministers during the period were more than the amount spent on their visits abroad. Details were given in an RTI reply to activist S C Agrawal by the Cabinet Secretariat.

The records show that during the three years, the ministers spent more than Rs 163 crore on their travels within the country. The expenditure incurred by them during 2008-09 was Rs 94.4 crore, which was 38% more than the cumulative expenditure incurred on domestic travels in the previous two years.

The reply from the Cabinet Secretariat also states that ministers of state in the government had spent about Rs 21 crore on their travel abroad during the period while Rs 27 crore were spent on their domestic visits.

About Rs 127 crore were spent by the central ministers in 2008-09, Rs 138.7 crore in 2007-08 and about Rs 82.3 crore during 2006-07 on their visits abroad as well as within the country.

The reply from the Cabinet Secretariat did not give any break-up of expenses in different heads as they are held by the drawing and disbursing officers (DDO) of different ministries. ���This office does not have any record of any individual minister as all the expenditure is booked under one respective head of account of all the ministers,��� J L Khurana, senior accounts officer at ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions, said.