Rs 1.71 crore spent on foreign tours of ministers

Nearly Rs 1.71 crore has been spent on foreign visits of chief minister Sheila Dikshit, her cabinet colleagues and members of the Assembly in the last nine years.

According to a reply to an application filed under the Right to Information Act, Dikshit, her ministers and MLAs undertook around 57 foreign visits, including to the US, the UK, Spain, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Germany and Switzerland, and Rs 1.71 crore was spent between 2004 and October 2012.

As many as nine visits were made to foreign countries in 2004, which cost about Rs 18.68 lakh as against 14 such visits in 2005 involving an expenditure of Rs 30.94 lakh and 11 tours in 2006 costing Rs 36.56 lakh.

Eight such tours were undertaken in 2007 for which about Rs 25.74 lakh was spent, while five visits in 2008 cost Rs 17.40 lakh, said the city government said in reply to RTI activist Vivek Garg.

About Rs 42.33 lakh was spent on 10 foreign tours of Dikshit and her ministers between 2009 and October 2012. The visits were undertaken to attend conferences and international seminars.

According to the reply, A K Walia as health and family welfare minister had gone to Canada and Japan between September 12 and 26 this year, and a total of Rs 6.96 lakh was spent.