Uttar Pradesh’s Transport Minister Durga Prasad Yadav has sparked off a controversy by embarking on a week-long “study” tour to Brazil with an entourage that includes his son and daughter-in-law apart from a few officials.
The group also includes the wife of one of the officials. The Minister is on the trip sponsored by the Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU), a body with India’s all-State road transport corporations as its members, to study transport systems in Brazil. The Minister has received flak from opposition parties and civil society as misuse of power and public money.
However, the Samajwadi Party has come out in defence of its minister with senior party leaders claiming that Mr. Yadav was bearing the travel expenses of his family members.
