CHANDIGARH: Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal were flying high while they were chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively from 2007 till March 2017. In these 10 years, they spent over Rs 100 crore on flying around, spending two hours on an average in the air in chartered aircraft paid for by the government.
In their second tenure in office from 2012 to 2017, the state government coughed up Rs 44 crore on hiring planes and helicopters for them. The father and son were usually accompanied by Sukhbir’s wife and Union Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal, her brother and then Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majitha, Parkash’s son-in-law and then Food Supplies Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, and other dignitaries.
As per information with the Punjab Civil Aviation Department, the government spent Rs 14 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 11 crore in 2013-14. In 2014-15, only Rs 5 crore was spent as the government had bought a Bell 429 helicopter for Rs 38 crore in 2013. But in 2015-16 and 2016-17, it spent Rs 6 crore and Rs 8 crore respectively.
Rs 10.5 crore has been spent on flying the Bell helicopter, Rs 3.5 crore on its fuel and Rs 7 crore on its maintenance, besides salaries of pilots and technical staff.
In the SAD-BJP’s first tenure from 2007 to 2012, for the Badal’s flights of fancy the government paid Rs 7 crore in 2007-08, Rs 12 crore in 2008-09, Rs 14 crore in 2009-10, Rs 16.50 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 15.50 crore in 2011-12—a total of Rs 65 crore.
In most of the trips, they flew Amritsar-Delhi-Amritsar, to Badal village in Muktsar district and to their farmhouse at Balasar in Haryana. A helipad was built near Badal village and a technical team with a fuel vehicle was stationed to refuel the chopper.
Hiring a chartered plane costs Rs 1.50-2 lakh per hour, while a helicopter is for Rs 1.25 lakh per hour.
State-owned helicopters used by the Badals flew 450 hours per year, or 40 hours per month—two hours of flying per day.
“The Badals spent most of their time with the people, which made them frequent fliers in the state, besides flying between Chandigarh and Delhi. All their flights are officially logged,’’ said Harcharan Bains, their media advisor.