The spending of ₹3 crore for organising the three-day Visakha Utsav has come in for criticism from BJP Floor leader in the Assembly and MLA P. Vishnu Kumar Raju. When asked to comment on the rumours that he stayed away from the utsav as he was not invited, Mr. Raju said: “Though I have not received any invitation, I am not an egoistic person to bother about such things I have no grouse against anyone. But my opinion is that spending ₹3 crore on the event is too much, and the government needs to conduct an inquiry into it.”
“I was busy with the distribution of bima bonds as part of the Pradhan Mantri Chandranna Bima in the 14 wards in my constituency. I have just finished distribution in the 39th ward. I am aware that celebrations are required to draw tourists, but such extravagance is uncalled for. The commercial stalls organisers would pay rent and I don’t understand why so much money is needed. Why should an event manager be paid such a high amount?” he questioned.
“A balloon festival was organised at Araku recently spending a huge amount, but nobody knew about it. I was told that the same event manager was given the contract again. The organisers might have thought that inviting people’s representatives could spell trouble for them,” he said.
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Recently, I went to the Regional Eye Hospital in the city and was surprised to know that for want of ₹1.5 crore, surgeries were not being performed. Facilities were also lacking at hospitals such as KGH. “In this backdrop, how can the government allow ₹3 crore to be wasted on tourism festival?” he wondered.