Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu claims former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal spent Rs 121 crore ($24 million) on chartered flight during the Akali Dal rule in the state between 2007 and 2017.
Mr Sidhu, while sharing the information on the former chief minister and deputy chief minister’s air travel purportedly based on a Right to Information request, demanded an investigation into it.
"The Badal family spent Rs. 121 crore on private helicopter travels during the period between 2007 till 2017," Mr Sidhu said while sharing information obtained by a Congress party functionary.
While the Punjab government has its own aircraft, the father-son duo hired a chartered flight that alone cost the state exchequer Rs 1 crore ($200,000) per month, totalling Rs 121 crore during the ten years of the SAD-BJP rule between 2007 and 2017.
An expense of Rs 7 crore ($1.4) was incurred on the state-owned Bell 429 helicopter that was bought for $38 crore ($7.6 million). If the price of the helicopter is added, the total air travel expenses of the Badals mount to a staggering Rs 167 crore.
Navjot Singh Sidhu Source: SBS
“It was criminal loot of state coffers,” said Mr Sidhu who is currently a cabinet minister in Captain Amarinder Singh’s government.
He said he would request the state finance minister to order an inquiry into the purchase of a helicopter without inviting competitive bids.
“Contrast this with our government which has spent just Rs 22 lakh on state chopper in the last nine months and hired chartered flights only for the governor twice and the chief secretary and the police chief that too in view of law and order after sentencing of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief,” the quoted Mr Sidhu as saying.
The Badals used the aircrafts to travel to their family home in Bathinda, Haryana and Delhi besides official engagements. It was also revealed that they also claimed a travel allowance of Rs 500 ($10) each time they undertook air travel.
An earlier RTI query revealed the father-son duo had 51 vehicles at their disposal that guzzled fuel worth nearly $3 million in 19 months in 2012-13.
However, the Shiromani Akali Dal was quick to refute Mr Sidhu’s allegations, terming them “political skullduggery”.
The party general secretary Maheshinder Singh Grewal told the Hindustan Times Mr Sidhu was concocting the figures while comparing the air travel expenses of the two governments.
He said the salaries of the pilot and flight engineers alone during the Congress government’s current tenure would have cost in excess of $600,000.
