Yogi govt relents, will pay Rs 2.5 cr bill for Vajpayee ash-immersion event

Former PM Vajpayee passed away on 16 August 2018 at the age of 93. His ashes were immersed on 23 August in Lucknow.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during handing over of the ashes of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to all BJP state presidents for immersion in their respective states | PTI

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government of Yogi Adityanath Wednesday agreed to pay the sum of Rs 2.5 crore spent on a function for the immersion of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ashes in Lucknow last year, after media reported that it had been avoiding the payment for nearly a year.

The director of the state government’s information department, Sishir Singh, said in a press note that the department will bear all the expenditure related to the function and will soon release the payments.

The director has also sent a letter stating as much to the secretary of the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), which organised the 23 August 2018 function and had been requesting the state government to settle its dues.

Talking to ThePrint, Singh confirmed the development but refused to divulge why the payment came nearly a year after the function and six months after the LDA, an autonomous body under the department of housing and urban development, first approached the government.

Dues of Rs 2,54,29,250

Vajpayee passed away on 16 August 2018 at the age of 93. The immersion of his ashes was scheduled for 23 August in Lucknow, which Vajpayee represented in the Lok Sabha for five consecutive terms.

The total expense of the event, attended by then home minister Rajnath Singh and Adityanath, was estimated at Rs 2,54,29,250, for arrangements such as the stage, sound system, lighting, tent and barricading. While asking the LDA to organise the function, the state administration had told the civic agency that the budget for the function would be allocated afterwards.

However, on 21 June, a media report in a Hindi daily suggested this had not been done, quoting LDA secretary M.P. Singh as saying that the state government needed to pay the bill for the function. Amid the ensuing furore, Singh said his remarks were distorted and he began avoiding the media.

However, ThePrint accessed several letters exchanged between the LDA and the state government’s information department, which suggest a reluctance on the administration’s part to pay the bill.