Rs 22 Crore Spent On Junkets For Goa Minister, Officers: Congress

Panaji: The Congress today slammed the Goa government alleging that it had spent nearly Rs 22 crore on foreign junkets for state Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar and officials since March 2012 to till date.

"It's an utter disgrace that the Goa government has spent almost Rs 22 crore (Rs 21,97,72,821) on international foreign junkets by tourism minister and officials," said Goa Congress spokesperson Durgadas Kamat.

The allegations came after the state Legislative Assembly debated on the issue of tourism junkets during Question Hour.

Mr Kamat said the expenses include travel, hotel stay, Travelling Allowance (TA) and Dearness Allowance (DA) to the minister and his team.

He said the figures were based on the reply tabled on the floor of the House by Mr Parulekar himself.

Advertisement

"It is clear now that money is flowing like water from the department," he said, adding, the expenses were incurred despite a whopping debt faced by the state government.

"Despite the state debt touching almost Rs 18,000 crore, such wasteful expenditures are being made," Mr Kamat said.

Advertisement

"The party (Congress) wants to know how many tourists have actually flown in from the countries visited by Tourism Minister and his team," he added.

Earlier in the day, Mr Parulekar had told the Assembly that tours to foreign countries were not new to Goa and that even during Congress' regime such tours were conducted.

Advertisement

"Even when you (Digambar Kamat) were the Chief Minister for five years, you were hosting such tours of magnitude more than what we hold," the minister had said replying to Mr Kamat.