(Left to right) Vijay Dev, Anurag Agarwal and Vikram Dev Dutt All expenses paid trips within India and abroad are commonplace in the UT officialdom. Top three bureaucrats of Chandigarh Administration splurged a seven-digit figure on their stay during an ‘official trip’ to Paris in 2015 where they not only spent seven days in the French capital for a three-day meeting but also moved from their “already booked five-star hotel” to a more plush property to get a better view of the famous Arc De Triomphe, and even gave each other approvals to increase their budget, all at the cost of the taxpayer.
This information came to light when this correspondent sought details about the foreign tours by UT officials in the last 10 years, the purpose of these visits, and the expenditure incurred through an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI) filed in the name of her father. It took almost a year and a half to get the details from all the departments.
PARISIAN SOJOURN
These three officers spent over Rs 25 lakh on a seven-day visit to Paris from June 12 to 18, 2015, even though the meeting they were supposed to attend was only for three days from June 15 to 17. This amount spent was almost double the amount previously got approved.
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Initially, a sum of over Rs 6.5 lakh, Rs 5.6 lakh and Rs 3.42 lakh was approved for the visit of the then UT Adviser Vijay Dev, Home Secretary Anurag Agarwal and Secretary Personnel Vikram Dev Dutt respectively to Villa Savoye in Poissy (Paris) to attend a meeting of Le Corbusier’s architectural work owners from June 15 to June 17, 2015.
According to the documents, a sum of Rs 6,57,775 was sanctioned for Vijay Dev’s trip on June 10, 2015, a day before the trip, via an order that stated, “the Administrator is pleased to approve the official visit of Vijay Dev…’’ Of this sum, Rs 4.39 lakh was to be spent on the stay at the Intercontinental Hotel, Paris Avenue Marceau (which meant Rs 73,194 per night for six nights), business class tickets from Delhi to Paris and back (Rs 1,77,415), and a daily allowance of Rs 40,320 each (given for seven days).
AN EXPENSIVE MOVE
The documents reveal that the officers, however, decided to shift to another plush hotel, Le Royal Monceau, where the room rent was almost 107 per cent more than the previous one and the exchequer ended up paying Rs 9.10 lakh (Rs 1.51 lakh per night for six nights) for Vijay Dev’s stay.
Citing ‘partial modification of the Administration’s order dated 10.6.2015, another order dated July 27, 2015 by then Secretary Personnel (who too had gone on the trip) stated, “the Administrator is pleased to accord revised sanction for the payment of Rs 11,28,971 on account of actual expenditure on the official visit of Vijay Dev”.
In case of Home Secretary Anurag Agarwal, who too switched to the more expensive Le Royal Monceau as part of this delegation, the then adviser Vijay Dev sanctioned his revised expenditure of Rs 6.61 lakh on July 27, a jump of Rs 1 lakh from the sum of Rs 5,61,308, sanctioned earlier.
This hike was due to the pricier hotel, which caused his room tariff to jump from Rs 3,42,954 to Rs 4,43,498 (which translated into Rs 73,916 per night).
The expenses for Vikram Dev Dutt, then secretary, personnel, too were revised from Rs 5.77 lakh on June 10, 2015, to Rs 6.78 lakh on July 27, 2015, by the then adviser Vijay Dev. Like Agarwal, his room tariff at Le Royal Monceau, Paris, too, worked out to Rs 4.43 lakh or Rs 73,916 per night for six nights.
Agarwal, who is at present posted in Haryana, when asked about the change of hotel, said, “I don’t remember exactly… the then Adviser wanted a location close to Arc De Triomphe… It is quite possible that we booked a hotel, and it was changed due to locational issues.’’ Google shows that the two hotels are just four minutes apart.
Agarwal added, “This meeting was really important to give a push to heritage status for Chandigarh. It was a meeting of UNESCO world heritage sites.”
Asked about the length of their stay, he said, “I don’t remember that. If you start nitpicking, there can be questions on everything… you see the intent. We also visited some properties designed by Corbusier. Also, I remember it was a sad day when we boarded the flight. Nek Chand had passed away and we felt really bad.”
Vikram Dev Dutt, currently CMD with Air India Asset Holding Limited, when contacted about his Paris trip in June 2015, said, “I have no ready recollection of the details, maybe it was a delegation led by the Adviser with other officers.”
When given specifics and asked about the change of hotels, he said, “All the approvals would have been taken by the department concerned from the competent authority I presume. I don’t remember any files for hotel accommodation etc being put up through me… Nothing about accommodation was either routed through me or within my knowledge.”
Vijay Dev, who is currently the State Election Commissioner, Delhi, did not respond to calls, messages and mail.
Interestingly, Chief Architect Kapil Setia also spent eight days in Paris, a day more than the three officers. Details received under the RTI from the Department of Urban Planning reveal that he went to Paris to attend the meeting of Le Corbusier architectural work owners from June 12 to 19. No specific details were mentioned other than “his perks of Rs 4,49,476, TA of Rs 1,01,219 and DA of Rs 22,682” as expenditure.
GLOBE-TROTTING — BERLIN, BARCELONA, AND LONDON
The then home secretary Anurag Agarwal did quite a lot of globe-trotting that year. He had just returned from Berlin in May 2015, just a fortnight before his Paris trip. Four months later, he also travelled to London and then to Barcelona, all at the cost of the taxpayer.
Before his visit, he was sanctioned Rs 1.7 lakh for air tickets (business class) and daily allowance for a two-day official visit from May 20 to 22 as part of a delegation of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry to Metropolitan Solutions 2015 in City Cube Berlin.
Later, upon his return, his expenses were revised to Rs 3.4 lakh, which included his stay at the five-star hotel, Pullman Berlin Schweizerhof, which cost Rs 1,44,488 for the short stay, business class air travel from Delhi to Berlin and back (1. 4 lakh) airport transfers (11,400 and Rs 5,750) and a daily allowance of Rs 37, 800.
The documents mentioned that the DA was given for six days, which meant he stayed for six days to attend a two-day meeting.
As Secretary Tourism, Agarwal also went to London to attend World Travel Market from November 2 to 5, 2015.
Agarwal then went to Barcelona in Spain to attend Smart City Expo for eight days from November 16 to November 23 even though it was a three-day event from November 17 to 19. Yet again, he was given ‘revised sanction’ for Rs 3.3 lakh of which Rs 1.50 lakh was paid for tickets as advance to him.
Agarwal was accompanied by two officers — S B Deepak Kumar, Secretary, Information Technology, and Prince Dhawan, then Director of Information Technology.
CAP THE EXPENSES
Reacting to these visits, Baljinder Singh Bittu, chairman of Federation of Sectors Welfare Association of Chandigarh, said, “Why is there no ceiling on their expenses, be it in terms of hotel tariff or revision in expenses? When even top executives in corporates have a cap, why can’t we do the same for public servants, considering that the taxpayers have to pay for these expenses? Any excess amount incurred by the officers over and above the prescribed limit to satisfy their fancies should be recovered from them.”
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