NPP to raise chopper issue in Assembly

The Shillong Times: Shillong: Wednesday, March 02, 2016.

The Opposition party NPP has decided to raise the issue of alleged misuse of helicopter by the Chief Minister Mukul Sangma in the State Assembly during the upcoming Budget session starting from Friday.

The Shillong Times had on February 29 reported that the Chief Minister incurred an expenditure of Rs 3.63 crore for using helicopter service from the year 2010 to 15.

Reacting to the news report in this regard which was sourced from replies to RTI query posed  by this newspaper, NPP spokesperson James Sangma said that the party would raise the issue “since it involves public money and the “Chie Minister is unnecessarily  taking  trips up and down in helicopter”.

He also asserted that it is highly condemnable since the state is already going through a financial crunch.

“These trips did not only compound the crisis, but also caused inconvenience to the commuters”, he said.

On the other hand, Leader of Opposition Donkupar Roy said that the Chief Minister should try to reduce the expenditure being incurred for using the helicopter.

However, he said the party has not decided whether to raise the issue in the Assembly or not.

Roy added that though he does not have any objections to the use of helicopter by the Chief Minister, “all attempts should be made to reduce the expenditure since the state is going through a financial crisis”.

The whopping amount of over Rs 3.63 crore (3,63,99,380)  spent for the Chief Minister alone from April 2010 till May 2015 for as many as 354 sorties, broke all the records even bypassing the expenditure figure of Rs 2. 8 crore (Rs 2,08,42,665) spent by Raj Bhavan on former Meghalaya Governor RS Mooshahary during his five year tenure in Meghalaya from 2008 to 2013 for carrying out 445 chopper trips.

Curiously, Rs 3,63,99,380 for just five years incurred for the Chief Minister  is more than the amount of Rs  3,40,17,060 which was generated from the passengers who travelled by chopper  for the last 11 years ( from November 2004 to March 2015).The state government has only one chopper and the same is used by the VIPs and the passengers. While 75% of the expenditure for operating helicopter in the state is borne by the Centre, the remaining 25% is paid by the state government.