14 Jun 2022  |   06:31am IST

RTI reveals another Rs 4.5 lakh spent on lunch buffet for Swearing-in ceremony

Goa government spent Rs 4,50,002 on lunch served for the swearing-in ceremony of those remaining three ministers which was held on April 9 in the Durbar Hall at the Goa Raj Bhavan

Team Herald

PANJIM: In yet another revelation about expenditures during the swearing-in ceremony, the government spent Rs 4.50 lakh approx only on the lunch buffet served to each guest for the ceremony of the remaining three ministers. 

Lawyer-activist Advocate Aires Rodrigues said that information received under the Right To Information Act states that the Goa government spent Rs 4,50,002 on lunch served for the swearing-in ceremony of those remaining three ministers which was held on April 9 in the Durbar Hall at the Goa Raj Bhavan. 

As per the information, the Raj Bhavan spent this amount on 250 lunch buffets at the rate of Rs 1525.43 each ordered from a five-star hotel in the capital city. 

Rodrigues has expressed concern that the government, despite empty coffers, chose to squander on serving lunch costing over Rs 1500 each. “Such criminal waste of scarce public funds only exposes the true intent of this ego-puffed government which publicly professes austerity measures,” he said. 

Information obtained earlier by Adv Rodrigues under the RTI Act had revealed that the 18-minute swearing-in ceremony of the eight ministers held on March 28 at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Bambolim had cost the taxpayers a whopping Rs 5,59,25,805 while a further Rs 72,21,972 was spent on the 134 vehicles hired for VIPs and their security attending that swearing-in ceremony.