Badals go the extra mile on hospitality meter

CHHAPAR CHIRI (Mohali): If there were free air miles attached to the Punjab government's flying machines, they would run into several free air tickets.
On Wednesday, state CM and deputy CM - both frequent air hoppers and whose air bill touched Rs 6.5 crore last year - went the extra mile on their hospitality meter when they helly-hopped VIPs, political leaders and ministers from across the party lines to their swearing-in ceremony at Chhapar Chiri on state hired machines.
A specially hired 10-seater fixed-wing aircraft Beechcraft 350 flew BJP veteran L K Advani, senior politicians Nitin Gadkari, Vasundara Raje, Rajnath Singh, Navjot Sidhu and Pratibha Advani, depleting the state exchequer by nearly Rs 8 lakhs for a 40-km two-way ride between Chandigarh and Mohali that lasted 20 minutes.
A few minutes later, a chopper was despatched to 'pick and drop' two AIADMK MPs - M Thambidurai and V Maitreyan - from Chandigarh to Mohali.
The chopper was hired by India Fly Safe aviation with hourly charges of Rs 2.75 lakhs.
Political leaders such as former Union minister Praful Patel, BJP leader Shanta Kumar, Vijay Goel and Karnataka PWD minister C M Udasi reached the ceremony in their privately hired aircraft.
Himachal CM Prem Kumar Dhumal and his MP son Anurag Thakur came to the venue by their state chopper.
Gujarat CM Narendra Modi was the only one who chose to travel from Chandigarh to Mohali by road.
"Even he (Modi) had come on a private aircraft," a senior official at Chandigarh airport told TOI.
Earlier, as many as six private choppers too kept raising small dust storms in Chhapar Chiri.
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