BELAGAVI: The district administration has initiated several measures to avoid excessive spending of money on holding the winter session of the state legislature in Belagavi for ten days from December 13.
A committee comprising senior officers has been formed to keep a check on the expenses. A huge spending on the organisation of legislature sessions in Belagavi has come under the scanner in the past, especially the expenses incurred on stay and travel of all the guests including legislators, officials and other staff attending the session.
To keep a tab on the expenses of the session and effective management of all the works, the district administration will be forming five committees, which will submit a report to the DC on how to avoid excessive spending. The committees would also ensure that the problems faced during the last sessions are avoided this time. Including legislators from 224 assembly segments, 75 MLCs and more than 1200 officials from various other departments and a large number of media persons and other government staff including drivers, gunmen and others will be staying in Belagavi for the session.
The government, which spent crores on their stay, travel and food so far during the session, will now keep a tab on the expenses, sources said.
It may be noted that, for the 10-day winter session of the state legislature held in December 2018 in Belagavi, an RTI information, the government spent a whopping Rs 13.85 crore.
Although, Suvarna Vidhan Soudha is located merely 8-km away from Belagavi city, where the legislators and all the VIPs stayed for 10 days during the session in different hotels, a huge Rs 2500/day was paid as a travel allowance for legislators. Another Rs 4.42 crore was paid as the bill for the stay of legislators, VIPs and officials in 67 posh hotels located in and around Belagavi city.
Almost all the hotels, lodges, resorts and guest houses in and around Belagavi were reserved for the guests during the 10-day session.