M A I N   N E W S

After 5-star fiasco, Bansal saves day for govt
Cancels trip to Egypt, Greece
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 9
A day after UPA ministers S.M. Krishna and Shahi Tharoor faced flak for residing in plush five-star accommodations when Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was expecting austerity from her colleagues, the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry rushed to garner some positive publicity for the government.

In a never-before move, Pawan Bansal, parliamentary affairs minister, decided today to cancel the annual “goodwill” ritual which lets 10 MPs from all political parties to visit different countries each year. On this year’s itinerary was Egypt and Greece. The decision, it is learnt, would save the government somewhere around Rs 1.5 crore, roughly.

Confirming the decision to The Tribune today, Bansal said he had resorted to the cancellation of the trip in line with the UPA’s promise to cut down non-plan expenditure of ministries by 10 per cent. The decision, however, is mainly inspired by UPA chief Sonia Gandhi’s recent directive at all MPs, MLAs and MLCs to abstain from splurging money and donate 20 per cent of their salaries to drought relief.

A decades-long annual feature, the MPs’ trip was to leave for Egypt and Greece on September 28. “The trip is meant to be a goodwill mission to promote ties with the countries being visited,” said Bansal.

The budget for the trip is provided as part of the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry’s annual budget.

Personal jet for Pranab & Co in times of austerity
Bhagyashree Pande
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 9
After having ordered a 10 per cent cut on government spending and having castigated his fellow ministers for splurging money on five-star hotels, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, it seems, is not practicing what he preached.

The FM is planning to take a government jet for his foreign meetings that are scheduled at the end of this month. Sources say the FM is going to Cyprus for a Commonwealth meeting. After that the FM will go to Istanbul for the World Bank meet in the first week of October.

Notably, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and his junior Shashi Tharoor had vacated the five-star hotel rooms they were staying in after the FM told them to give up the luxury suites. Both were spending their own money on the hotel rooms in Maurya and the Taj Man Singh, respectively.

Sources said FM is to take only four more people with him during the travel. This includes Finance Secretary, Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary, besides his personal secretary. The FM and his team can easily fly in a commercial airline to cut down on expenses but he is taking a plane instead.

Interestingly, the austerity measures for domestic and foreign travel have been necessitated by the fact that the sixth pay commission has allowed first class travel for all government employees from Secretary to the Joint Secretary level. Sources say there has been a prudent use of this norm but still there are some government servants who travel first class because of entitlement.

The Finance Ministry on September 7 had issued an order asking all ministries to cut down on non-plan expenses by 10 per cent. This includes domestic and foreign travel, holding seminars and conferences abroad, ban on meetings and conferences in five-star hotels and advertising. The purchase of new cars was also banned.