Karunanidhi breaks vow, flies Cessna

CHENNAI, July 18: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who had vowed never to travel by the state government owned Cessna aircraft purc...

CHENNAI, July 18: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who had vowed never to travel by the state government owned Cessna aircraft purchased during J Jayalalitha’s regime, used the plane thrice in the last two weeks, including for his visit to New Delhi on Thursday, for attending the United Front Steering Committee meeting.

The Chief Minister (CM) had used the aircraft on July 6 to fly between Chennai and Tiruchi and on July 12 to travel between Chennai and Coimbatore.Karunanidhi had pledged to sell the aircraft soon after he took over as CM.

The government had placed on record in the state Assembly the huge expenses incurred on the maintenance of the aircraft and had stated that the state government would purchase 20 ambulances out of the money made by the sale of the aircraft.

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The government was proposing to sell the aircraft for Rs 20 crore, but there appeared to be no takers. In May this year, it was reported that the Defence Ministry was considering the state government’s offer.

Karunanidhi was accompanied by his wife Dayalu Amma, Tamil Nadu Health and Electricity Minister Arcot N Veerasamy and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP K P Ramalingam. Incidentally, Tamil Maanila Congress president G K Moopanar left by the scheduled Indian Airlines flight on Thursday morning.

The Jayalalitha government had purchased the aircraft at a cost of Rs 20 crore. The Cessna Citation Five aircraft is one of the latest in the world and flies at a speed of 0.78 MACH, faster than the Boeing 737 aircraft.