How much public money Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (popular as KCR) might have spent on his Federal Front political tours to various states?
KCR, like his Andhra counterpart Chandrababu Naidu, loves pomp and circumstance. Both love to travel in special flights even though their purpose of travel doesn’t warrant it. Even on Sunday Telangana CM left for New Delhi in a special flight, and the trip is not planned in a short notice. Still the state government has hired a special flight for his four-day visit to the National capital.
Recently CM KCR visited kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai to meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee, JD(S) HD Deve Gowda and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi respectively to hold talks on the possibility of floating an anti-Congress and anti-BJP federal front. On all occasion he hired a special flight for the visits spending lakhs rupees of public money on what is seen as not an issue connected to the development of Telangana. So, the extravaganza of CM KCR has become a hot topic in social media. Against this background MaJlis Bachao Tahreek (MBT), led by Amjedullah Khan, asked the chief minister’s office (CMO) for the details of the expenditure under RTI ACt. MBT is a most dynamic political outfit actively engaged in the social service in Telangana, especially in the capital city of Hyderabad.
The chief minister’s office, however, refused to divulge details of money spent on his political tours.
Amjedullah Khan wanted to know if it was funded by the government or private agency along with the details of the expenditure. His RTI application said, “CM announced a non-Congress and non-BJP Federal Front, for which he and his minister,MPs and MLAs and government officials have been visiting different state to meet their chief ministers and party leaders. I have asked if the expenditure is being borne from government exchequer or another source. I have also asked for the amount spent on each visit if the money is spent from the government exchequer. I sought details in case of private funding.”
The PIO of CMO turned down the request. The PIO said in his reply, “Under Section 2)f) of RTI Act the information is required to be suplied under the Act which already exists. It is required under the Act to create information or to interpret information or to solve the problems raised by the applications or to furnish replies to hypothetical questions.”. Finally, the MBT leader’s application has been rejected by the CMO stating that no such information exists.
Ok, then who footed the bill for KCR’s political flight trips?