Arvind Keriwal office spent over Rs 1 crore on tea and snacks, reveals RTI
New Delhi : Where so many people in India don’t get to eat, the chief minister’s office at the capital city spent whooping amount on tea and snacks. An RTI enquiry reveals that Arvind Kejriwal's office spent a total of Rs 1.03 crore (Rs 1,03,04,162) on tea and snacks during the three years of his tenure.
The expenses at Kejriwal's office in Delhi were revealed by a Haldwani-based activist who had sought a response to an RTI query he had filed in February. Aslo, the RTI stated that total expenses incurred on Kejriwal's journeys since he became the chief minister of Delhi come at Rs 11.99 lakh.
As per the reply received by activist Hemant Singh Gauniya earlier this week, the expenses in financial year 2015-16 on tea and snacks were calculated to be Rs 23.12 lakh whereas the amount stood at Rs 46.54 lakh in financial year 2016-17.
In year 2017-18, an amount of Rs 33.36 lakh was spent on tea and snacks at the Delhi CM's office. Notably, a RTI query in 2016 had exposed that the Chief Minister drew up a bill of Rs 47.29 lakh - Rs 22,42,320 at his secretariat office and Rs 24,86,921 at his residence camp office - for tea and snacks.
Commenting on the huge figure, Gauniya said, "This is an expense which should be controlled and the money should be spent on people who are not in a condition to afford a single meal in a day. I hope the government will cut such expenses for the greater good." There was no response from the Delhi CM's office at the time of filing this report.
Break up of his expenses reveals that in year 2015-16, out of the total Rs 23,12,430, expenses of the camp office stood at Rs 5,59,280 while expenses of tea and snacks in his secretariat office stood at Rs 17,53,150
In year 2016-17, out of total money of Rs 46,54,833 spent on tea and snacks, Rs 15,91,631 was spent in the secretariat office while Rs 30,63,202 was spent in the camp office.
In financial year 2017-18 in which total figure spent on tea and snacks by Delhi CM stood at Rs 33,36,899, expenses in the secretariat office were Rs 6,92,284 while in the camp office it was Rs 26,44,615.
In a similar RTI filed by the same activist in February this year, it was revealed that Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat spent over Rs 68 lakh on snacks and refreshment for his guests in 10 months of his tenure.
In 2016, Uttar Pradesh government was in news for making expense of nearly Rs 9 crore on tea and snacks in four years since the Samajwadi Party (SP) had come to rule the state.
