Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah (File pic)
The fact that Karnataka is battling a drought has not impeded the travel plans of a group of law-makers from different parties who are determined to travel to Brazil, Argentina and Peru with taxpayers footing the bill of about seven lakhs a head.
30 state legislators are scheduled to study Amazon rain forests, visit waterfalls and takes notes on the tourism and sporting activities in these areas that could be introduced in parts of Karnataka.
The chief minister, K Siddaramaiah, says suggestions that the tour be cancelled are senseless. "It is a study tour. Every year some MLAs go. It is approved by the legislature. I don't think there is any critical situation," he said to reporters today.
The agenda of the tour includes shopping at Manaus in Brazil, where the legislators will "experience rhythms of Samba, Tango and Paraguayan music during dinner and a show at a local restaurant."
Mallikayya Gutedar who is among the legislators who will travel abroad said the schedule for the tour has not been finalized yet.
"We are not committing a big crime...don't you send school children on vacation?" he asked.
The state's Congress government says this is part of the official holiday that legislators can take once in five years to get to know each other and learn to work together.
It was the Congress that had protested furiously over a similar junket of MLAs, in various batches, in the middle of a drought situation last year, when the BJP was in power. Then chief minister Jagadish Shettar had then asked a group of MLAs to fly back from Argentina.
The government now claims the politicians will not travel business class or stay in deluxe hotels, and they will pay for their own English-speaking guides.