JOIN USA lunch organised at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s official residence last year has now sparked a row with the BJP accusing the AAP of splurging tax payers’ money for party purposes.
Releasing documents in this connection to the media, the BJP said each plate, at an average, cost a whopping Rs 13,804.
Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Opposition leader in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said the bill for the lunch hosted for 50 people on February 11, 2016, was Rs 6,23,605 (the cost per plate was Rs 12,472), while the next day, another 30 people were treated to lunch, the bill of which was footed at Rs 4,80,740 ( the cost per plate was Rs 16,025).
“Though the food was supplied by the same five-star hotel on both days, it is beyond one’s understanding as to how the expenditure per plate rose by Rs 3,553 per plate — more than 28.5% — overnight, Gupta said, adding that it was a scam and demanded the resignation of the chief minister.
The Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation had organised the lunch. The permissible limit under financial rules is Rs 1,250 per person for hosting a lunch in non-five star hotels, the BJP said. “The government is a custodian of public funds entrusted to it by tax payers in the form of exchequer. But Kejriwal and his party, for the past two years, have been misusing these funds for political purposes,” Goyal said.
However, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia denied the charges saying he had never cleared the file which was sent to him in this connection.