RTI: AAP Ministers went on 10 foreign trips on govt expense

A Right to Information reply from the Delhi government has revealed that Ministers of the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government have gone on 10 foreign trips paid for by the exchequer since coming to power in February 2015.

As per the RTI reply, which was released by the Delhi Congress on Monday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has been on six of those trips. His trips to São Paulo, Brazil, Australia, London and Berlin cost the General Administration Department (GAD) about Rs.36 lakh.

Trips to Athens and Finland were organised by other departments of the government, so the GAD did not know how much they cost.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain visited Rome last year and were given an advance of Rs.13 lakh, of which Rs.70,000 was returned to the GAD. Mr. Jain also visited Manchester (United Kingdom), and Malaysia on separate occasions at costs of Rs.7 lakh and Rs.4.22 lakh respectively.

Mr. Jain, Transport Minister Gopal Rai and Subodh Prasad, a multi-tasking staff in Mr. Rai’s office, visited Sweden, for which the GAD paid Rs.9.62 lakh.

Speaking at a press conference here, Delhi Congress spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee said that the AAP had promised to eschew “VIP culture”, but had ended up “spending public money recklessly”.