RTI reveals Election Commission spent Rs. 5.83 crores on travel
9 Dec, 2013
An application was filed with the Election Commission of India under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the information regarding the expenditure incurred on domestic and foreign travel of Election Commissioners and senior officials of the commission.
The reply to the application shows that the election panel has spent a total of Rs. 5.83 crore on its official travels. The data, provided in the reply, states that total domestic travel expenditure of the commission from 2008-09 to 2012-13 was Rs. 3.56 crore while the amount for international travel during the same period was Rs. 2.27 crore.
The reply also stated that during the above period, domestic travel expenditure has almost remained constant, but the foreign expenses have increased by nine times in four years. The data shows that the expenditure on foreign travels in 2008-09 was Rs. 8.33 lakh which increased over the years to Rs. 74.86 lakh in 2011-12.
Regarding the huge expenditure on foreign trips of Election Commissioners, the officials of the election commission stated that it was because of increasing foreign recognition of the commission and most of the trips were for monitoring the electoral process in other countries.