Mumbai: The Maharashtra Congress Monday raised questions on the expenses incurred by the delegation led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2023, especially the need to charter a plane to Zurich and hire a costly pavilion.
The questions come a day after ThePrint exclusively reported that the Shinde-led delegation had spent Rs 32.31 crore on the Maharashtra delegation’s trip to Davos this year.
As per records maintained by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and accessed by ThePrint under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the expenses incurred by the Shinde-led delegation were almost three times the expenses incurred in 2022 when the former Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had sent a delegation to participate in the World Economic Forum’s annual conference.
In 2022, the delegation — which included then cabinet ministers Aaditya Thackeray, Nitin Raut and Subhash Desai — spent Rs 11.41 crore. In comparison, in 2015, the state delegation had incurred expenses of Rs 63.28 lakh.
Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe Patil, in a video statement sent to media persons, said, “Auto wale mukhyamantri charter wale mukhyamantri jhale ahet” (the CM who used to go in an auto rickshaw now goes in a chartered flight).
Londhe’s statement was an indirect reference to CM Shinde’s humble roots, starting off as an auto-rickshaw driver before he became a politician.
ThePrint reached MIDC chief executive officer (CEO) Vipin Sharma and state industries minister Uday Samant via calls and messages for a comment on our original report but did not receive a response.
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‘Expenses double or triple than that of earlier years’
Londhe claimed that the Shinde-led delegation’s expenses under all heads were double or triple than that of earlier years.
ThePrint had Sunday reported that the Shinde-led delegation spent Rs 16.3 crore on hiring a grand pavilion for Maharashtra at Davos, Rs 7.27 crore on logistics, Rs 1.89 crore on chartering a flight for Shinde and some senior officials from Mumbai to Zurich and back and Rs 1.92 crore on a ‘state dinner’ for 150 people, among major heads.
“The cost incurred by the Davos delegation has crossed Rs 32 crore. The delegation has gone using a chartered plane and the reason cited for it is that suddenly the PM decided to visit (Mumbai). Were the tickets purchased earlier? Then were they cancelled and a flight was chartered? Was the PM’s itinerary finalised at the eleventh hour?” Londhe asked in his statement.
Londhe also questioned the inadequate medical infrastructure in the state and the recent deaths at state hospitals in Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in the video.
“This is not a government of common people. It is a government of some specific people. It talks about auto rickshaws, but, in reality, it is a charter,” he added.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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