Trivendra Singh Rawat was sworn-in as the ninth Chief Minister of Uttarakhand in March last year.
The BJP government in Uttarakhand, headed by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, has spent over Rs 68 lakh in nine months on tea and snacks, a Right To Information or RTI has revealed.
The RTI request was sent by an activist, Hemant Singh Gaunia, to the BJP government in Dehradun on December 19, 2017, asking for details on the money spent on tea and snacks ever since the new government was sworn in on March 18 last year.
The state government, in its response, said "68 lakh, 59 thousand and 865 rupees have been spent".
The money has been spent by the ministers and other officials in entertaining guests, specifically on tea and snacks, it said.
"Such expenses are natural but if they go beyond a limit then it is a matter of concern. Janata Darbar and official meetings take place at the chief minister's office. Uttarakhand chief minister will take cognizance of it," BJP's Virender Bisht told news agency ANI on the Rs 68 lakh expenditure.
Trivendra Singh Rawat was sworn-in as the ninth Chief Minister of Uttarakhand after the BJP's landslide win in the assembly polls last March. The party had won 57 of the 70 seats in the Uttarkhand assembly.
A similar RTI enquiry in 2016 had revealed that the then chief minister Harish Rawat's government had spent nearly Rs 1.5 crore between February 2014 and July 2016 on tea and breakfast.
Similarly, in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh in 2016, the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had informed the assembly that almost Rs 9 crore were spent on tea, samosas and gulab jamun by council of ministers over four years - that's more than Rs 2 crore per year.
(With inputs from IANS)