Avoid tour abroad during session: PM to ministers

Taking exception to ministers wanting to travel out of the country when Parliament session is on,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...

Taking exception to ministers wanting to travel out of the country when Parliament session is on,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has once again cautioned his Cabinet colleagues against making travel plans abroad unless absolutely necessary.

Singhs advisory comes after Union Tourism Minister Selja took off last Sunday on a week-long official tour to Tehran and South Africa. On Tuesday,however,Selja was back after suddenly cancelling her South Africa leg. She told The Indian Express that she came back after falling sick and had not been asked to return.

The other two ministers who will miss the Budget session are Minister for Overseas Affairs Vayalar Ravi,at present recuperating in Chennai following a car accident in Africa recently and Minister of State for Petroleum Jitin Prasada,who has proceeded on a honeymoon following his marriage on February 16.

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Visits of all ministers now stands cancelled because of the Budget session,except for the Prime Minister,External Affairs Minister and Commerce Minister, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told The Indian Express on Tuesday. I myself was scheduled to go on a foreign tour,but have cancelled it now, he added.

Prithviraj Chavan,Minister of State in the PMO,maintained that circulars by the Prime Minister advising ministers against travelling abroad during Parliament session were not new and had been issued in the past.

Foreign travel by ministers became a controversy during the last UPA regime when RTI applications revealed that 71 out of 78 UPA ministers had made 786 foreign trips in a span of three and a half years,travelling over 1 crore kilometres.