M A I N   N E W S

Rudy pays hotel bills
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 9
Reacting to the newspaper reports about a state-owned airport management agency picking up his holiday tab, Union Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Monday rushed to pay the bill personally. The minister’s aides today said the minister had paid the bills himself and “there was no public money involved”.

A newspaper report had yesterday said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had received the bill for Mr Rudy’s luxury holiday in a seaside resort in Goa which had also sparked an Opposition furore. “The payment is being made and the minister is paying the entire amount from his pocket,” minister’s aides said here.

Mr Rudy was accused of squandering public money by letting the AAI pick up a tab of some Rs 2,50,000 for his four-night, five-day stay with family in a plush hotel suite that cost Rs 64,800 per day.

Coming as it did in the run-up to the parliamentary elections, the expose prompted the opposition parties to train their guns on the minister. However, both the minister and the AAI denied having made any payment whatsoever against the bills dated December 30 to January 3, which had been forwarded to the AAI.

The minister, who was on a tour of his Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar had said: “No payment has been made till now. I did not ask the AAI to pay my bill. I was only waiting for the hotel to reduce the bill that was inflated on account of the new year.” While pointing out that no payment had yet been made, the minister had also rejected demands for his resignation.