NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Rediff Shopping

Shop & gift from thousands of products!   Books     Music       Apparel   Jewellery   Flowers   More..      Safe Shopping

Fund-starved UP govt generous with foreign jaunts

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The fund-starved Ram Prakash Gupta government in Uttar Pradesh may depend on Reserve Bank of India's overdrafts to disburse its monthly salary bill, but when it comes to foreign jaunts, money does not seem a consideration.

The government recently gave the nod to a 17-member state assembly delegation for a virtual spin around the globe, ostensibly "to study the parliamentary procedures and practices in three countries - China, Japan and Canada."

Significantly, even after the state government's approval, sanction was held back by the prime minister's office. However, influential delegation members approached Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who duly obliged.

Led by UP Speaker Keshri Nath Tripathi, the delegation comprises ministers, MLAs and MLCs, both from the ruling and opposition parties. A similar tour had been undertaken last year too

Even the United States was on the itinerary but it was dropped since the prime minister's delegation was, in any case, heading for that country early next month.

Justifying the trip, Tripathi said the trip was not going to cost the state exchequer much, as boarding and lodging was being arranged by the host nations. "We were also sharing the cost of the trip and have paid Rs 80,000 each towards expenses."

However, top officials handling the programme claimed that the whole exercise was going to cost the exchequer nothing less than Rs 10 million.

The delegation also includes a doctor. This is in violation of established norms, which permit the inclusion of a doctor only with the entourages of the President, vice-president or prime minister.

The impunity with which top functionaries of the UP government ignore norms is well known. Not very long ago UP's Agriculture Minister Diwakar Vikram Singh led a four-member delegation on a tour of the US to "study the system of agriculture marketing" and how it could be adopted by the state-run 'mandis' here.

Each of the three IAS officials included in the delegation were transferred to other sectors shortly after their return. Hence a report on the "study tour" was never prepared.

The US seems to be everyone's favoured destination.

Shortly after Kalyan Singh assumed office as chief minister for the second time, a senior bureaucrat close to him, was allowed to visit New York "to study the policing system there." The real purpose of the mission was that the bureaucrat wanted to visit his daughter living there. The trip was sanctioned and it cost the exchequer Rs 2.5 million.

As soon as the delegation returned, the bureaucrat was transferred to the government of India. He now holds a key position in the Union information and broadcasting ministry.

Barely a year later, another senior bureaucrat proposed a visit to New York for the same purpose. Kalyan Singh once again gave the nod. This time a 12-member delegation included not only IAS and IPS officers but also a police inspector, responsible for annihilating dreaded gangster Shri Prakash Shukla. The inclusion of the inspector was justified on the ground that he had to be rewarded for his excellent job, but the fact remained that he was taken essentially to do errands for the high and mighty members of the delegation.

This trip cost the government Rs 4.3 million. Once again, after the delegation returned, most officials were shifted to non-policing departments.

Though both delegations duly produced reports of their "findings", both were almost identical. And what happened to the reports, seems to be nobody's business.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report