PM, council of ministers incurred Rs 393 cr expenditure on foreign, domestic travel in 5 years
Mumbai: A Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his council of ministers incurred an expenditure of Rs 393 crore on foreign and domestic travel in last five fiscal years.
City-based RTI activist Anil Galgali had filed an RTI query with the PMO seeking the total Foreign Travel Expenses (FTE) and Domestic Travel Expenses (DTE) incurred by the prime minister and his council since May 2014.
In December 2018, the Modi government, replying to queries on foreign travel expenses in Rajya Sabha, had said that an expenditure of over Rs 2,021 crore was incurred on chartered flights, maintenance of aircraft and hotline facilities during Modi's visits to foreign countries since June 2014.
The RTI filed by Galgali finds that Rs 263 crore was spent by the PM and his cabinet colleagues on their foreign visits, while Rs 48 crore were spent in their domestic visits.
As far as ministers of state are concerned, the RTI reply states that they incurred expenses of Rs 29 crore on foreign visits and Rs 53 crore on domestic visits.
Replying to his query, Satish Goyal, the senior accounts officer of Pay and Account Office of the Cabinet Affairs, has stated that cumulative expenditure incurred on FTE and DTE by the PM and the ministers from financial year 2014-15 to 2018-19 was Rs 393.58 crore. Citing e-lekha reports, Goyal gave separate expenditures of the cabinet ministers, the prime minister and the ministers of state.
According the RTI reply, cabinet ministers and the prime minister spent Rs 311 crore, while ministers of state spent Rs 82 crores on their foreign and domestic visits.
A major chunk of expenses was incurred in the year 2014-15, when Rs 88 crore was spent on foreign travels by the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues. Galgali asked why all details were not kept separately and termed it a "lack of transparency".
"This information on travel expenditure does not give the full picture and therefore, it is a lack of transparency. The government should keep all records of each minister and their numbers of trips and their expenses and all these information should be available in public domain."
Replying to Galgali's previous RTI query, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had said that it does not keep records of the expenses incurred on the domestic visits of the prime minister exclusively.
Praveen Kumar, Under Secretary and the Central Public Information Officer of the PMO, had replied that the MPs' domestic visits are organised by the different public authorities and documentation of the expenses incurred on the PM's domestic visits is not part of the records and information maintained.
Kumar also said that the prime minister's tours related to poll campaigns are not official ones and the PMO does not have to incur any expenditure on them, therefore, the details cannot be provided.
As per PMO website, the expenses on domestic visits of the prime minister are met out of the budget of the Ministry of Defence, while the expenses of his foreign tours are met out of the budget head "Cabinet Ministers Maintenance of PM's aircraft Other charges".
According to the PMO website, Modi has made 49 foreign trips from May 2014 to February 22, 2019. It also lists the expenses incurred on chartered flights on these 49 foreign trips.
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Delhi: Father, son held for killing 19-year-old woman in suspected honour killing
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi Police has arrested a man and his son for allegedly murdering his 19-year-old daughter in west Delhi's Hari Nagar area, an official said on Friday.
The case first came to light on April 1 after a PCR call was received around 2 pm, alleging that a woman had been killed by her family members and her body was being taken for last rites, he said.
The accused, identified as Mohammad Maneer (55), a vegetable vendor, and his son Meraj Ali (19), were arrested in connection with the case, the officer said.
The victim had been in a relationship with a man from her native place for the past two years, which was opposed by her father, Maneer and brother Meraj, he said.
"When the girl did not end the relationship despite objections, the family killed her," the officer said.
On April 1, the police said that when their team reached the spot, they found that the woman's body was being taken for burial.
Acting on the input, the burial process was stopped over suspicion of honour killing.
"Police intercepted the family members and took possession of the body," he said.
Police said that the man who had made the PCR told them that the woman was in love with his cousin.
During the inquiry, police also interacted with the PCR caller, who said his cousin, a friend of the deceased, had informed him about the situation and suspected foul play, prompting him to alert the police control room.
The body of the woman was subsequently shifted to the mortuary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for preservation and postmortem.
Police said that both the crime team and the forensic science laboratory (FSL) team were called to inspect the scene and collect evidence.
Police said that, as per the postmortem report, the cause of death was identified as smothering, indicating that the woman was suffocated.
A preliminary inquiry also revealed that the family had initiated preparations for the last rites soon after the woman's death, raising suspicion about the circumstances.
Initial investigation pointed to the family's opposition to the woman's relationship.
"The family members of the woman saw her with the man, and she was taken back home. We got to know that she was beaten up and even locked inside the house for some days," a source said.
Further investigation into the matter is underway, police added.
