AAP termed study tour ‘a waste of public funds’, now seeks Chandigarh administration nod for similar trip

The permission for the trip sought by the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation is for the last week of September.

This study tour has been proposed by AAP leadership, which had last year announced a boycott of study tours saying “it’s a colossal waste of public funds”.
AAP councillor Yogesh Dhingra, who had last year termed the “study tour” by the BJP and the Congress councillors “a colossal waste of the taxpayers’ money”, on Tuesday said, “As of now, nothing is finalised….”

Dhingra, who was completely against study tours, told The Indian Express, “The place has not been finalised…. Also, I was not in the meeting…. Let’s see what happens.”

When contacted, Chandigarh Mayor Kuldeep Kumar, who is also an AAP councillor, said, “We have sought permission for these two places (Lakshadweep and Kochi) from the UT Administrator. We are not sure whether we will get permission or not, as the media is covering it now.”

When reminded about the AAP saying “study tours are a waste of public funds”, he said, “For tours, we get separate funds. No other fund of any public utility is diverted for this.”

For the record, in order to study waste management, councillors had undertaken several study tours in the past, and more than Rs 2 crore had been splurged on these junkets. At some places, councillors had reportedly even taken their family members — all at taxpayers’ expense. However, the councillors had made it clear that they had paid for their family members out of their own pocket.
Study reports
In the past, several ‘study’ tours had been undertaken by public representatives, but the reports of such tours have either not been submitted or junked after submission.

In 2017, councillors and officials of the civic body had gone on a trip to Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam and Pune in three different groups from April 17 to 22. The trips were undertaken to study sanitation and water supply and came at a cost of Rs 20 lakh. But, none of the things “learnt” from these trips were implemented in the city.

After drawing flak for not submitting a report, a report was prepared and tabled much later after convening a special House meeting wherein it was discussed to set up a smart e-learning school in Chandigarh on the lines of the one in Pune. But the smart e-learning school never saw the light of day in Chandigarh.

In 2018, another study tour was undertaken to six cities — Indore, Bhopal, Vijayawada, Navi Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam, and Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh) — at a cost of around Rs 30 lakh. At the time councillors stated that they wanted to study solid waste management and water supply, among others, during their tour. However, none of the learnings from that trip were implemented in Chandigarh and to add to the woes, the UT’s cleanliness record had reportedly only worsened after that.

2015 study tour controversy

In 2015, a study tour had courted a serious controversy with councillors taking their family members along with them at taxpayers’ (public funds) expense. Facing criticism from the general public and various other quarters, the then Municipal Corporation (MC) general House had decided to recover the additional amount spent from the councillors concerned, including the mayor and the deputy mayor, who had taken along with them members of their families on the tour to Chennai, Kolkata, and Port Blair.

Finding “private expenses” being paid for from public funds, then MC commissioner had shot off a note to the MC Accounts Department wherein he sought the recovery of money spent by councillors and officials to meet their private expenses during the study tour.

The additional expenditure incurred on the family members’ night stay in hotels came to be Rs 9,000 (per night) each for the councillors and there were nine councillors, who had taken along members of their families on the tour. A whopping Rs 28 lakh was spent from the public exchequer on the controversial study tour to Chennai, Kolkata, and Port Blair.

The group during this tour had also gone to Havelock Island (in the Andamans), which has no civic body. On the Havelock Island, the group reportedly visited several beaches and enjoyed rides which weren’t in the itinerary.