Raut denied the allegations that the companies were pressured into paying for the chartered flights. (File Photo)Congress leader and former state energy minister Nitin Raut recently told the Bombay High Court that he had used chartered flights to travel to Nagpur during the Covid-19 pandemic only for official or administrative work and not for personal reasons.
Raut filed his affidavit in response to a PIL by BJP leader Vishwas Pathak, who sought directions against Raut to reimburse state power companies to the tune of more than Rs 40 lakh, allegedly spent on his “illegal” use of chartered flights in 2020.
Citing alleged RTI information obtained from power generation and distribution companies, Pathak said that during the nationwide lockdown, Raut had used chartered flights for numerous trips to Mumbai, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Delhi for “administrative work”, and had made the debt-ridden power companies pay his bills amounting to over Rs 40 lakh.
Raut denied the allegations that the companies were pressured into paying for the chartered flights and said, “I deny that the expenditure incurred for the chartered flights was illegal, arbitrary and a gross waste of public funds.”
Raut also said Pathak had already filed complaints against him with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and BKC Police station in Mumbai and has availed of alternate remedies for his grievances and since both the authorities are seized of the matter, the High Court should not hear the plea. Raut said Pathak was media head of the state BJP and the petition was filed with political vendetta to settle political scores.
He also said that he had travelled by chartered flight only while carrying out his duties as minister and since he had undergone angioplasty, his doctors had advised him not to take up long distance road travel, otherwise he would travel to Nagpur by commercial flight or train. He added that being then guardian minister of Nagpur, he had to travel there regularly for administrative work.
“At that time, since commercial flights were not operating and due to the urgency of the situation, I was forced to travel by chartered flight,” Raut claimed.
The affidavit read, “On the relevant occasions, I had travelled to Nagpur for administrative work which included overseeing of day to day functions of the power companies and to resolve issues brought about by the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Nisarga cyclone. This was to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity.” He added that he had travelled for work, and his responsibilities had included deciding utilisation of power plants for producing oxygen, and ensuring the power supply remained undisturbed. Moreover, he had to travel to oversee rehabilitation of power lines that were destroyed during the Nisarga cyclone that impacted Western Maharashtra.
He added that during the lockdown, the energy sector had to work as an essential service and he had to travel as the head of the ministry to ensure power companies work smoothly.