RailEnquiry

Can one undertake train journeys in three different directions the same day? Can one be present in Patna and be travelling out of the city at the same time? Can one travel by train and plane simultaneously?Yes, they can if they are legislators of the Bihar Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. This is what the yet-to-be-published report of the state’s Principal Accountant General (PAG) has found in an audit of the two Houses from March 2009 to March 2012. Bihar has 243 MLAs and 75 MLCs.A copy of the operative part of the PAG report, dealing with the audit of the Assembly secretariat, is available with The Indian Express.According to sources, the state government has forwarded the PAG’s findings, including on the “misuse” of rail travel coupons (RTCs), to the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat for answers on the questions it has raised. In its final stages, the PAG report will come out in February-March next year. The findings:54 legislators claimed to have travelled in more than one direction the same day on 142 occasions, six of them in three directions. One such MLA showed he had travelled from Patna to Azam Nagar Road, Patna to New Delhi and New Delhi to Patna on February 15, 2010. Another member showed he had gone from Patna to Forbesganj, Forbesganj to Patna and again Patna to Forbesganj on November 17, 2010. Forbesganj is over 300 km from the state capital. Another legislator produced details of his travel from Patna to Delhi twice and Patna to Kishanganj the same day.87 legislators availed Patna stay allowances even when they claimed to be travelling out of the state capital. They produced proof of 3,598 trips between April 2009 and March 2012, claimed allowances for stay in Patna 3,123 times. “This indicated that the journeys were not actually performed by the members concerned themselves,” said the report.172 legislators were accompanied by more than one co-traveller in 1,522 cases. As per Bihar Vidhan Mandal provisions, a legislator is entitled to get RTCs worth Rs 1.5 lakh in a year to travel in AC class with one co-traveller. RTCs worth Rs 10.81 crore were issued to 402 members between April 2006 and March 2012. “RTCs worth Rs 46.02 lakh were irregularly spent on those additional co-travellers,” said the report, adding that the “circumstances and authority under which such gross misuse of public resources was done was not investigated by the Assembly Secretariat until 2012”.Rail trips of 15 House committee members were simultaneous with local or air travels. A committee member, who undertook 201 km of local journeys on 24 May, 2011, and 200 km local journeys on May 25, 2011, also travelled by air from Patna to Delhi and back on these two days. A legislator is entitled to Rs 10 per km mileage allowance (increased to Rs 15 from April 1, 2011) during Assembly sessions or to take part in Assembly committee meetings. The PAG reportedly detected 10 cases of contradictory claims while seeking mileage allowances.Responding to some of the findings, Deputy Secretary of the Bihar Assembly wrote to the PAG office: “The maximum monetary limit of RTCs was not crossed in any of the cases and journey with more than one co-traveller could not be verified with only PNR numbers.”PAG, however, was not satisfied, as per the report. “Usage of RTCs is not being verified by the Secretariat,” it said, also slamming the lack of “any effective internal control system”.Parliamentary Affairs Department Joint Secretary Navneet Ranjan Tiwari told The Indian Express: “We have received the PG report and would soon forward it to the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat to give a compliance report. We have little role in such matters and work only as conduit”.While PAG R B Sinha refused to comment, another senior officer at PAG office said: “The issue (blatant misuse of RTCs) is important and some legislators’ excuse of deciding to travel by air at the last moment and not getting their rail tickets cancelled is absurd and misleading. There is a provision to produce details of cancelled journeys as well.”