Vadodara Municipal Corporation women corporators to go on junket

VADODARA: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) will spend lakhs of rupees on travel of women corporators to Gangtok in Sikkim for a symposium on participation of women in development of cities. The women corporators will also take an ‘education tour’ of areas around Gangtok during the tour.
The standing committee of the civic body gave its nod after the corporators got an invite for the event organised by the All India Institute of Local Self Government. The civic body has 38 women corporators and along with them, some officials too will travel with them on the tour.
VMC standing committee chairman Dr Hitendra Patel said that the number of corporators and officials who will attend the event is still to be ascertained. The expense incurred on the tour will depend on the size of VMC’s entourage. Such tours have raked up controversies in the past.
Earlier, corporators have travelled to Shimla, Ooty and other places for such tours. The expenses on all occasions have run into lakhs. The VMC commissioner had proposed that an amount of Rs 20lakh should be earmarked for education tours and seminars. However, the standing committee increased it to Rs 50lakh.
In all, education tours, sports and meeting expenses will amount to an expense of a little over Rs 1.04 crore. This is more than double of what the commissioner had proposed at Rs 48.25 lakh.