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Mulayam's visit to native village, Vaishno Devi, were official: Government

The central government today submitted before the Delhi high court that all visits of former defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in Indian Air Force aircraft and helicopters, including those to his native village Safai and to Vaishno Devi, were of an official nature.

As per defence ministry provisions, only the prime minister was entitled to use defence aircraft and helicopters for personal reasons and charges for such use are to be borne by the PMO. All other entitled persons, including the defence minister, were entitled to use the defence aircraft and helicopters for official reasons only.

The affidavit listed several visits, allegedly official, that Yadav's personal staff claims he made in 1996-97 to Safai, Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Agra. The total expenditure on Yadav's flying hours was Rs 415.7 million.

In an affidavit submitted before a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice K S Gupta, defence ministry Joint Director (Accounts) V Shanmugam said that since all journeys undertaken by the former defence minister have been certified as official by his personal staff, no dues were to be recovered from him.

The affidavit was filed through central government counsel Rakesh Tikku in response to a PIL filed by advocate B L Wadehra who sought immediate recovery of the outstanding dues of over Rs 2 billion with interest from ministries and political parties for the 'personal' use of defence aircraft.

The PIL also urged the court to order a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry to identify those who had marked the personal use of aircraft by Mulayam Singh Yadav as being for official reasons, and to find on whose orders the said persons had done it.

The cost of operation of the MI-8 helicopter at the relevant point of time was Rs 1,35,000 per flying hour, the affidavit said, adding that the former defence minister had actually flown for 1449.55 hours by aircraft and helicopter.

On November 4, 1996, Yadav had visited Jammu and Vaishno Devi and the visit was termed to be official by his personal staff. On February 19-20, 1997 he flew in an IAF MI-8 helicopter for six hours and 50 minutes for his journey on sectors Delhi-Safai-Delhi.

Again on February 27, 1997, the former defence minister visited Safai on an official visit by the defence helicopter. Later, he undertook visits to Gwalior and Lucknow-Safai.

On November 8, 1997, he flew in an IAF helicopter for seven hours and 45 minutes on sectors Safdarjang-Ghaziabad-Safai-Agra.

The Centre said the nature and purposes of each of Yadav's visits could not be confirmed or denied beyond what is stated in the official communications received from the personal staff of the former defence minister.

The indent for placing an aircraft at the defence minister's disposal usually comes to the air headquarters as an official request from his personal staff.

IT stated that out of Rs 18,30,55,320 indicated as outstanding against the various central ministries/departments as on May 31, a total of Rs 12,65,24,564 has already been realised up to February this year.

The government denied the petitioner's submission that Rs 2 billion was outstanding against different agencies. As per records, the total outstanding against various user agencies on May 31,1998 was only Rs 1.34 billion.

Wadehra said the non-payment of the outstanding dues of more than Rs 2 billion adversely affected the functioning of the air force since the amount was a part of its budget.

He alleged that Yadav as the defence minister was using the defence aircraft not only for his official duties but also for other purposes, including private and political. But misusing his official position and power, all such trips were reportedly marked official, he said.

The petition urged the court to direct Yadav to pay the dues and the interest for all the trips he made during his tenure as defence minister to places like Lucknow, Mainpuri, his native village Safai and Etawah. These trips were marked as official while their purpose seemed to be "personal or political", the petition said.

According to the petitioner, in about 18 months of his tenure as defence minister, Yadav logged as much as 1440 hours and 55 minutes of flying in the defence aircraft. In all, he made 307 trips of which about one third either originated from or ended in Lucknow, his political base. The cost of the said 307 flying trips, during which Boeing 737s, Hs 748, Avros, MI-8 helicopters, Chetaks and AN-32 transport planes, would amount to nearly Rs 236 million.

"The marking of private trips as 'official' is gross misuse of power involving making false statement on record, to avoid making payment of such private trips from personal pocket and loading such expenditure on the public exchequer. It also constitutes criminal conspiracy between the user of the aircraft (in this case, Yadav) and his secretary or some other official who made the 'official' marking and the captain of each such aircraft," the petition stated.

He contended that it was not only the defence minister who uses or misuses the aircraft, but that different ministries of the Union government, state governments and political parties also use aircraft and rarely pay the defence ministry for such use. This adversely affects the forces' functioning and preparedness, including usual defence exercises and training, he said.

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