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30 Union Cabinet ministers spent Rs 300 crores in three years on travelling, between 2006-09, out of which their domestic travels alone cost Rs 163 crores.

In fact the highest amount of Rs 115 crores was spent in 2007-08, when the country was sliding into an economic slowdown. These staggering igures have been revealed in response to an RTI application filed by activist Subhash Chetan Agarwal.

Perhaps this was part of an unwritten “stimulus package” to help out the ailing aviation industry. One can only imagine what might have happened to the robbed and plundered Air India otherwise. Or did they help private operators out?

I can hear some ministers saying that the duo of Sonia and Rahul have spent more on travelling than all of them put together. Rahul's day out costs Rs 1 crore.

IE reports that two Union Ministers, S M Krishna and Shashi Tharoor have been staying at Maurya and Taj respectively for the past three months because their official accommodation is not yet ready. The official line is that these guys are paying the bills from their own pockets.

As long as this is the case, it's fine by me. They can do whatever they want with their money. However, it's not clear how much they have coughed up so far, and there is certainly no guarantee that they will not claim reimbursement from the government for the same in the future. Considering that the minium tariff for a night's stay at any of these hotels is supposed to be Rs. 40000 at the very least, I am pretty sure the taxpayer will be forced to pay the bills in the end.