The heavily indebted Maharashtra government somehow managed to find almost Rs1crore to spare for swearing in chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who took oath of office at a high-profile open-doors ceremony with a guest list of several dignitaries and very important persons.

The information was revealed to Right to Information (RTI) activist Anil Galgali, who had sought to know the amount spent for the grand function, whose decision it was to choose Wankhede stadium as venue, and other expenses incurred by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the event. The event, which was attended by prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, saw a number of chief ministers in attendance.

A separate application was also made to the BJP, seeking to know the expenses it incurred. Large cutouts of various BJP leaders and erstwhile Jan Sangh were put up at the stadium.

"On the one hand we are struggling to give compensation to farmers from drought-hit areas, but on the other so much money is being spent on swearing-in alone," said Galgali.

As per the information provided by the office of executive engineer (establishment) and executive engineer (electricity), the two state departments spent Rs67,00,660 and Rs 30,60,670 respectively for the ceremony.

Additional commissioner of police for the region stated that Rs72,500 was spent for the security arrangement.

Incidentally, the governor's office had directed the chief secretary to make the arrangements. "This decision is taken by protocol officers after taking the governor's approval. Wankhede stadium was chosen after we realized there would be shortage of space (with any other place). Every person brings his supporters and there were limited seats. It was then decided that except for swearing-in of constitutional posts like that of judges and information commissioners, the government's swearing-in will be done there," said Umesh Kashikar, spokesperson for the governor.

"Swearing-in ceremonies should be simple. What is the need for a supporter there? And if BJP feels RTI does not apply to them as a measure of transparency, they should have put up such details on their website without anyone asking for it," said Galgali.

Responding to Galgali's remarks, BJP city president Ashish Shelar said, "To create suspicion by half-hearted activism is not good activism. Legally we are right and on record the government has given whatever it had to. We are not under the RTI."

But what about suo-motu disclosure by the party for better transparency? "If we have not done something (putting up expenses online) we will not do it just because he (Galgali) thinks it should be done," Shelar said.