BENGALURU: The state government spent Rs 2.89 crore on Governor Vajubhai Vala’s air travels in the last 20 months, according to information obtained through RTI.
The information was obtained by advocate and RTI activist T Narasimha Murthy from the Chief Secretary’s office. As per the information, the government spent the money on the governor’s air travels, mostly within the state and to his home state Gujarat.
Vala travelled to different cities, including Mangaluru, Hubballi, Bidar, Dharwad and Mysuru by chartered aircraft and helicopter to attend official programmes, including university convocations. The governor is also the chancellor of universities in the state. The chartered air services were mostly provided by GMP Air Charters.
Over Rs 13 lakh was spent on hiring a charted aircraft for the governor’s visit to Rajkot in Gujarat in December 2014, and over Rs 11 lakh was paid for chartered air services for his visit to Bhavnagar in Gujarat in January 2015. Both the visits to his home state were for attending official programmes.
“These expenses are very high, especially if we compare them with the Rs 67.82 lakh incurred on air travels in five years during Hansraj Bhardwaj’s tenure as governor,” the activist said.
Murthy claimed that Raj Bhavan had refused to provide him the information stating that a Special Leave Petition (related to Goa Raj Bhavan) was pending before the Supreme Court. “After my appeal was rejected by officials at Raj Bhavan, I had to approach the Office of the President of India. After the President’s office directed the officials concerned to provide the information, I got it from the Chief Secretary’s office,” he added.
Information on air travel expenses during Bhardwaj’s tenure was also obtained under RTI by Murthy.
Raj Bhavan officials were not available for comment.