MPs splurge on air travel, bill stood at whopping Rs 131 cr last fiscal

Arun Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ropar, September 8

Members of both Houses of Parliament have been spending extensively when it comes to air travel with their annual bill touching Rs 131 crore in the last fiscal. 

A Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal, CPM’s Ritabrata Banerjee, alone spent more than Rs 69 lakh a year (April 2016 to March 2017), though the expenses of most of the MPs remained below Rs 10 lakh.   

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Ropar-based Right to Information (RTI) activist Dinesh Chadha, an advocate, has procured details of the air travel expenses incurred by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members. “Such acts warrant special scrutiny by the Comptroller and Auditor General as public money cannot be allowed to be splurged. Our parliamentarians also need to exercise self-restraint,” says Chadha.

According to the Parliament website, each member enjoys the facility of 34 free one-side air tickets in a year. They can either travel alone or with their spouse or any number of companions or relatives. The spouse or companion of an MP can also travel alone by air eight times in a year. Over and above the free air ticket, a parliamentarian is eligible to seek one-fourth cost of the amount spent by the government on each ticket, meaning if the ticket cost Rs 1 lakh, the member gets additional Rs 25,000. 

The total air travel expenditure of the Lok Sabha MPs from April 2016 to March 2017 stood at Rs 95,70,01,830 while Rs 35,89,31,862 was the amount spent by Rajya Sabha members.

The RTI activist says most of the Lok Sabha members spent about Rs 2 lakh to Rs 7 lakh in the form of TA, DA over six months. The travel bills of many others, however, touched up to Rs 57 lakh. 

Chadha says most surprising is the pattern of expenditure as the same amount has been spent for travel between two places in different parts of the year  by some members. 

Ritabrata Banerjee undertook several journeys from Kolkata to Delhi to attend Parliament committee meetings. His tickets mostly cost Rs 49,205 each time. Similarly, the price of return tickets from Delhi to Kolkata was Rs 49,220 on most occasions. 

Congress MP from Telangana Ananda Bhaskar Rapolu spent Rs 85,113 for travelling from Hyderabad to Delhi and after adding one-fourth of the additional amount, his trip cost Rs 1,06,391, says Chadha. 

D Raja, CPI’s Rajya Sabha member from Tamil Nadu who spent more than Rs 65 lakh, mostly bought air ticket for Rs 65,841 between Delhi and Chennai. 

Congress’ Oscar Fernandes spent Rs 69,218 on Delhi-Bangalore journey many times. 

Trinamool Congress MP Sukhhendu Sekhar Roy spent up to Rs 56,136 for travelling from Kolkata to Delhi. For an air journey by him from Mumbai to Kolkata, the fare was Rs 99,039.