Summary:
This is apart from the rent for the official accommodation occupied by them as ex-CMs.According to the data received by the petitioner, highest expenses were incurred by Bhagat Singh Koshyari who spent a total of Rs 3,70,08,661 on various facilities. It is appalling that cash in the exchequer is being spent with such impunity even though the state government is unable to cater to basic necessities like health and education of citizens,” he added.The TS Rawat government had earlier submitted that it calculated the rent dues of the former chief ministers @ Rs 1,200/month and collected a total of Rs 5.24 lakh from them. Nainital: The Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday issued notices to six former chief ministers of the state seeking their response on a public interest litigation stating that over Rs 13 crore was spent from the exchequer for personal expenses incurred by them even after demitting office.On Wednesday, a Dehradun-based NGO filed a PIL before a division bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Ramesh Chand Khulbe stating that the RTI replies received by them from various state government departments has revealed that Rs 13,03,34,160 was spent by the six former CMs from 2002 to 2017 towards travel, vehicle maintenance, electricity bills, telephone bills among others even though they were not office-bearers at that time. This was followed by Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri (Rs 2,81,52,434), ND Tiwari (Rs 2,39,62,088), Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (Rs 2,17,90,220), Vijay Bahuguna (Rs 1,11,91,690) and Nityanand Swami (Rs 1,56,442).The petitioner also pointed out that the state government had not calculated the rent of the official accommodation for the former chief ministers at par with the market rates.Taking note of the submissions, the court asked the advocate general appearing on behalf of the state government to calculate the amount in accordance with the market rate and submit it before the court before the next date of hearing of the PIL seeking recovery of the amount from the respondents.Kartikey Hari Gupta, counsel for the petitioner, said, “Though the court did not set the next date of hearing, it said that the matter will be heard soon after the winter vacation comes to an end in mid-February.” “We have requested the court to examine how public money was spent for personal expenses of the ex-CMs..