Chandigarh. The election campaign of Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and Aam Aadmi Party AAP Chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in Gujarat is taking a toll on Punjab’s treasury. An RTI has revealed that around Rs 45 lakh has been spent by the Punjab government on rented aircraft for the visits made by Mann and Kejriwal to Gujarat between April 1 and 3. At the same time, the information about how much money was spent in Himachal’s tour has not been received from RTI. Harmilap Singh Grewal, a resident of Bathinda, had filed an RTI with the Punjab government seeking details of the expenditure incurred on Mann’s visit to Gujarat and Himachal.
In response to this RTI, the Civil Aviation Department of Punjab has told that from April 1 to 3, Bhagwant Mann took a helicopter on rent. In lieu of this, the department got a bill of Rs 4485967. Regarding the Himachal tour, it is replied that Mann visited on 6 April, but the cost of this is not known. Let us inform that in both the states, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also accompanied Mann. This election campaign belonged to the party, but the Punjab government will have to pay Mann and Kejriwal’s bill from the tax levied on the public.
Assembly elections are due in Gujarat in November-December this year. Bhagwant Mann and Kejriwal had started campaigning for the Aam Aadmi Party there. The special thing is that before coming to power, Bhagwant Mann used to ridicule Charanjit Singh Channi, who was the CM at that time, because Channi used to go from place to place in Punjab by government helicopter. Now Mann himself is hiring private helicopters, but the Punjab government has to pay his bill.