Costly visit of A K Anthony

MYSORE: Defence minister A K Anthony is considered an austere politician. But he seems to be unaware of how much will his February 7 visit to Mysore will cost. He will be using a helicopter to travel a distance of 15 km in the city.
He is scheduled to inspect BEML production units, in addition to inaugurating an aerospace manufacturing division. Anthony is expected to arrive here on Monday by a special IAF plane from Bangalore.After landing in Mysore airport, he will jump on to another IAF helicopter to reach the new aerospace production division, which is hardly 15 km (according to traffic police). And once back to the airport, the minister will be flown back to Bangalore and from there he will board a special plane to Thiruvananthapuram. Defending the use of helicopter, BEML senior official B S Sridhar initially said the minister is in a hurry to return to Thiruvananthapuram. When pointed out that it takes 15 minutes to reach BEML from the Mysore airport by road against half an hour to fly-- including the take off from the airport and 15 minutes for the engine to cool off before the inmates are able to get down, the official said it is the defence ministry's decision and he cannot comment. But it leaves one wonder if it isn't an utter waste of public money to fly in the city when it is more convenient to take the road.