Gandhinagar: As per the RTI reply received by Bathinda based Harmilap Singh Grewal, as reported in the Times of India, the civil aviation department of Punjab government has received bills of over Rs 44,85,967 for the aircraft hired for chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s visit to Gujarat from April 1 to 3. Mann had visited Gujarat with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to launch Aam Admi Party’s campaign as assembly elections are due in December next here.

Mann and Kejriwal had stayed in luxurious Taj hotel in Ahmedabad during their Gujarat visit. They had given TV interviews to selected local news channels in Gujarat and held a road show in Bapunagar assembly constituency. The advertisements of Punjab government’s anti-corruption Whatsapp number featuring Mann were running twice every half an hour on Gujarati news channels after Mann’s visit.

“Before coming to power, Mann would ridicule then chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi for his helicopter use within Punjab, but now he is hiring private jet for visit to other state. His visit to Gujarat and Himachal were purely for the purpose of campaigning for the party and had nothing to do with the functioning of the state government or for the benefit of Punjab,” said Grewal, a former AAP cadre who filed RTI.