Badals splurged Rs128 cr on flights, claims Sidhu

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 15

Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday accused former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and former Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal of making an “unjustified” expenditure of more than Rs 128 crore on helicopter and chartered flights during the SAD-BJP government’s 10-year rule.

“A sum of Rs 121 crore was spent on the Badals’ private and chartered flights and about Rs 7 crore on the official helicopter. In contrast, the Congress government spent only Rs 22 lakh on helicopter fuel during the first nine months of its current term,” Sidhu told mediapersons.

Citing information obtained by local resident Daljit Singh under the RTI Act, he said the then Badal government, violating CAG norms, had purchased the state helicopter for Rs 37 crore without inviting competitive bidding.

The minister said: “We have not spent a single penny on the chartered flight of any minister, including the Chief Minister, till date. I will hold at least four more press conferences to show how the Badals plundered the public exchequer for personal gains. I will write to the Chief Minister and the Finance Minister, seeking action against the looters of public money.”

Sharing documents with the media, Sidhu said Badal had got reimbursement of Rs 7.97 lakh for the air travel of his wife, Surinder Kaur, to the US in 2010. “The bills for her medical treatment were not supported by air tickets or boarding passes,” he alleged.

It’s a lie, says SAD

Chandigarh: Reacting to the allegations, the SAD accused Sidhu of telling lies while comparing the air travel expenditure during the SAD-BJP rule vis-a-vis the Congress term. In a statement, SAD spokesman Maheshinder Singh Grewal said the pilot and engineers’ salaries alone came out to be Rs 3 crore per annum whether the helicopter flew or not. “How can he justify his figures? This is nothing but an example of political skullduggery for which Sidhu is famous,” he added. TNS