As many as 54 legislators are likely to go on a multi-state tour even as Karnataka is reeling under one of the worst droughts ever.
The legislators, who are members of three legislature standing committees, are planning to embark on a tour of Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra and Bihar, in the last week of April or first week of May, a source in the secretariat said.
The list of names of legislators who have agreed to go on the tour is at present not available. A clear picture will emerge once the tour package is finalised, the source added.
The standing committees are Women and Child Welfare Committee headed by N A Haris, Government Assurance Committee headed by K N Rajanna and Local Bodies Committee headed by B R Yavagal.
Efforts to contact the chairpersons of the committees went in vain as Rajanna and Yavagal did not receive calls and the mobilephone of Haris was “out of coverage area”.
A foreign junket organised for legislators in the name of study tour had come in for severe criticism in 2014. The then Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa had constituted a committee to frame guidelines to regulate such tours.
The committee had recommended that the tour can be undertaken only for a specific purpose. According to the draft sanction for the April-May tour, the cost per head is likely to be around Rs 3 to Rs 5 lakh, the source added.
DH News Service
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks