air travel

chief minister

expenditure

CM cuts, takes to roads to record just Rs 6 lakh in 8 months as compared to Rs 13.07 crore in 18 preceding months on travelEitherSiddaramaiah has been chastened by the flak that he and his predecessors, from the BJP, have received for running up huge bills for air travel or he has been staying put in the city. Only Rs 6 lakh has been spent on chief minister Siddaramaiah’s air travel in the eight months from December 2014 till July 31, 2015. This is a drastic drop from the Rs 13.07 crore spent in the first 18 months of his tenure.This information was revealed to an RTI query filed by activist T Narasimhamurthy, who had questioned Siddaramaiah last year on the huge funds spent on air travel in a face-to-face interaction with the chief minister. Since he took over in May 2013 till November 2014, the CM had travelled 164 times by air. He had carried out official tours to New Delhi. Other destinations included Ballari, Raichur, Koppal, Byadgi, Davanagere, Yadgir and Kodagu. Even small distances between two points – like Mysuru to Hunsur – were covered using helicopters.Now in the past eight months, it came down to less than 20 trips, an official explained. And no money was spent from the public exchequer in February, March and July, when he travelled by road.This has been explained by the severe cost-cutting that Siddaramaiah resorted to on air tickets and cutting down on helicopter sorties — a model worth being replicated by all the heads of states and Union Territories in India.This is a welcome revelation especially considering that in Karnataka, chief ministers have regularly drawn flak for high spending on travels.Former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa had spent around `42.26 crore during his 3-years-62-day tenure; Sadananda Gowda spent `13.77 crore in 342-day tenure; and Jagadish Shettar, `12.78 crore in his 304-day tenure as chief ministers. With Siddaramaiah’s own travel extravagance between May 2013 and November 2014 going through the roof, it had been clear that chief ministers cutting across party lines were running up huge bills on travels.While earlier the chief minister had spent an average of `72,63,438 per month between May 2013 and November 2014, this has come down to a mere 70,508 in the eight months from December 2014 to July 2015. Narasimhamurthy said the recent data was a pleasant surprise as the discipline in spending public funds had returned.“For the spendthrift cabinet ministers and babus, this should be a leaf to be taken out of chief minister Siddaramaiah’s book,” Narasimhamurthy said. “This, the chief minister achieved after he drew flak from various quarters over the huge public funds being spent on air travel. When the state was facing serious issues like drought and malnutrition, I wanted to know if there is any discipline being followed – especially after the earlier criticism. The discipline is back as costs are being cut drastically. We wish this continues.”The cost cuts have been due to a conscious decision. Officials in the chief minister’s office told Bangalore Mirror: “After the severe criticism last year, the chief minister had decided to cut down on travel costs, and has achieved it. Some aspects followed were going by road wherever possible, and in case of faraway destinations, multiple events and engagements were clubbed to cut down on costs,” an official said. “Also, there have been no international trips in recent days against earlier when he had visited Singapore. He has given directions to systematically plan his itinerary to minimiseon air travel,” a senior official in the CM’s office said.