HC asks govt to furnish details of Minister's foreign tours

HC asks govt to furnish details of Minister's foreign tours
K S MANOJKUMAR

AURANGABAD, OCT 9: A division bench of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra Government to furnish details of expenditure on all foreign tours, undertaken by State Cabinet Ministers in the recent past.

Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), filed by local businessman, Satish Kulkarni, the division bench comprising Justice B H Marllapalley and Justice V N Dabholkar, has also sought details on air-travels by Ministers to their respective constituencies, the cost the State Government had to incur to refurbish the Ministers' offices and official residences.

The petitioner has contended that such expenditures were not only unnecessary and wasteful but amounted to looting of the State exchequer.

The government pleader, Eknath Sawant, has claimed that the foreign tours of the Ministers had resulted in a flow of investments worth Rs 2000 crore within Maharashtra.