RAIPUR: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been advocating austerity, Chhattisgarh Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal , siphoned off taxpayers' money to ensure delivery of his passport, which was ferried to Kolkata in a state plane.

Agrawal, who has been embroiled in controversies, was scheduled to attend three-day Commonwealth parliamentary association meeting between November 18 and 20 in Dhaka. He reached Kolkata without his passport and summoned the state plane to deliver his passport, which was promptly done.

While Agrawal was not available for comment, Chief Minister Raman Singh said the state plane was on a training flight. He neither confirmed nor denied the state plane was used to deliver the passport at Kolkata.

State's director public relations (DPR), Rajat Kumar, also said the state plane was on a training schedule. He said the Speaker was initially scheduled to fly to Kolkata in the state plane with a trainee pilot, but changed his plans at the last minute and took a commercial flight.

He said since clearances had been obtained for the state plane to fly to Kolkata, plans weren't changed and the "training flight" was undertaken.

However, DPR claims of a last-minute change in the Speaker's programme rung hollow after inquiries by TOI revealed that Agrawal's seat on Indigo flight for Nov 17 was booked at least four days in advance.

An aviation expert said, "Usually training flights are taken to nearby airports like Jabalpur and Nagpur that are 150 nautical miles away. What was the need to fly the plane to Kolkata, 375 nautical miles away from Raipur?"

Congress legislature party leader, T S Singhdeo, said, "the Speaker has no right to waste public money."

Earlier, Agrawal was in news for the controversial installation of 48 air-conditioners at his residence. He has been also accused of encroachment on government land by his trust, Chhaganlal Govindram Agrawal Trust, which is named after his father. A complaint was filed with Lokayog in 2012.

