Maharashtra State Ministers Extravagant Flight Plans

Maharashtra has been facing a acute water shortage due to drought on one end and the Govt has issued advisories to its staff to keep a check on the expenses, But on the other end its own Ministers have indulged in extravagant flight travel in the past years, which is to the average of Rs 2.10 crores annually. Forest Minister Dr Patangrao Kadam has outshone others and has emerged as a torch bearer in this flight plan, He has grossed only Rs 43 Lakhs as Air travel expenses in the past three years. This information was provided to RTI Activist Anil Galgali, who had sought the details from the Pay & Accounts dept, Govt of Maharashtra.

Anil Galgali, Chairman of Athak Seva Sangh & RTI Activist had raised  a query to the Pay & Accounts Dept of the Govt of India, where by he sought about the travel expenditure incurred by all the Ministers of the State Govt. The Dept provided Anil Galgali with information of approved expenses from 08/11/2009 to January 2013, The details contain travel expenses incurred by the CM and his council of Ministers. In the past 3 year the 43 Ministers have spent Rs 6,28,83,598/=, which means annually Rs 2,09,61,198/=. Amongst them Dr Patangrao Kadam has spent the highest Rs 42,40,616/-, the top ten include Anil Deshmukh ( Rs 39.54 Lakhs), Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Rs 36 Lakhs), Fauziya Khan (Rs 32.48 Lakhs), Narayan Rane (Rs 31.29 Lakhs), Dr Nitin Raut (Rs 28.93 Lakhs), Sunil Tatkare (Rs 26.88 Lakhs), Balasaheb Thorat ( Rs 24.95 Lakhs), Jayant Patil (Rs 21.70 Lakhs), Jaydutt Kshirsagar (Rs 20.83 Lakhs).

Ex Chief Minister Ashok Chavan spent Rs 1.46 Lakhs  during 08/11/2009 to 10/11/2010. CM Prithviraj Chavan (Rs 6.32 Lakhs), Dy CM Ajit Pawar ( Rs 10.28 Lakhs), Home Minster R R Patil (Rs 14.35 Lakhs), PWD Minister Chaggan Bhujbal (Rs 18 Lakhs), Naseem Khan ( Rs 18.76 Lakhs), Rajendra Darda ( Rs 19.29 Lakhs). It is important to note here that the Govt has its own plane and helicopters to facilitate the travel of its Ministers, these expenses are over and above the expenses that they must have incurred there. It is also important that apart from the Ministers the CM's Pvt Secretaries Sanjay Yadav & Abhijit Ghorpade have spent Rs 79,642/= & 61,138/= respectively in the past 8 months only. The other Ministers staff expenses were not provided by the dept.

It needs to be mentioned here that though there is no ceiling to the expenses to be incurred on this account, it is a Moral duty of the Ministers to observe self restraint on issues like these specially when the state is facing its worst crisis, said galgali.Anil Galgali in a letter written to the CM has appealed that the Ministers should voluntarily reduce these expenses by opting to travel by trains and ST Buses, as it can be seen that they have used flight mode to destinations which are connected to the ST and train route. 

The other Minister  like Shivajirao Moghe ( Rs 19.73 Lakhs ), Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar (Rs 4. 66 Lakhs ), Prof Laxman Dhoble (Rs 9.43 Lakhs ), Subhash Zanak (Rs 7.66 Lakhs ), Hasan Musrif (Rs 9.75 Lakhs), Ganesh Naik (Rs 39 Thousand), DP Sawant (Rs 13.60 Lakhs ), Padmakar Valvi (Rs 15.83 Lakhs ), Ranjeet Kamble (Rs 14.79 Lakhs ), Varsha Gaikwad (Rs 12.59 Lakhs ), Ramesh Bagve (Rs 3.12 Lakhs), Sachin Ahir (Rs 1.88 Lakhs ), Abdul Sattar (Rs 6.95 Lakhs ), Prakash Solnakhe (Rs 9.57 Lakhs ), Vijay Vaddetivar (Rs 10.35 Lakhs ), Bhaskar Jadhav (Rs 7.57 Lakhs ), Rajesh Tope (Rs 9.01  Lakhs ), Suresh Shetty (Rs 13.81 Lakhs ), Harshwardhan Patil (Rs 8.62 Lakhs ), Manohar Naik (Rs 1.35cLakhs ), Dr Vijay Kumar Gavit (Rs 5.69 Lakhs ), Babanrao Pachpute (Rs 9.20 Lakhs ), Sanjay Devtale (Rs 15.41 Lakhs), Gulabrao Devkar (Rs 8.24 Lakhs ), Rajendra Gavit (Rs 2.50 Lakhs ), Rajendra Mulak(Rs 13.71 Lakhs).