An RTI query has revealed that our Chief Minister’s recent swearing-in cost the exchequer a whopping Rs 5.59 crore. This amount does not include the rental of the SP Mukherjee stadium and advertisements released in print, electronic media and radio. The file for approval of expenditure went through the usually musty government corridors at lightning speed and was approved by the CM and Governor within 24 hours. No sanction from the finance ministry was sought. The stage erected for the ceremony itself cost Rs 1.87 crores, cutouts of the politicos placed on poles cost Rs 68.4 lacs while the lunch arranged for the attendees was billed at Rs 57.5 lacs. At a time when the state is in the grip of a Covid-driven recession, this humongous spending was a criminal waste of taxpayers’ money. On one hand, the government preaches austerity and on the other spends crores plus of the public. Yet another sordid saga added to this sarkar making merry with janta’s paisa in an exercise of self-aggrandisement and projection of power. Not ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas ’ but ‘apna saath, apna vikas’ via public ka rupaiya. Nowhere else in the world do we see this kind of wasteful expenditure on what is essentially a routine constitutional exercise and all this when almost 80 crore Indians are subsisting on free rations doled out by the government. What a sterling example of ‘public welfare ‘, all hail our king CM.
