New Delhi, May 22: Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar travelled abroad 29 times in 35 months since assuming office, according to information given under RTI Act.
The average comes to one foreign trip in every 37 days, says a media report.
The Speaker visited these countries as head of parliamentary delegations incurring a total expenditure of nearly Rs 10 crore.
Social activist Subhash Agarwal filed the RTI plea and the reply stated that after being elected as Speaker on June 3, 2009, Meria Kumar travelled abroad for 146 days until April 30 this year.
The country most visited by her is Switzerland,with the Lok Sabha Secretariat saying it was the work related with Inter-Parliamentary Union which took her to the popular holiday destination.
For IPU work, Meira Kumar undertook seven visits to four countries. Switzerland four times, while once each to the US,Panama and Thailand.
In addition, she visited Trinidad and Tobago, the UK, Sri Lanka, Isle of Man, Swaziland, Kenya and Tanzania for work related to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
Meira Kumar also took parliamentary delegations to Italy, Austria, Mauritius, Bhutan, Hungary, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Mexico,Vietnam, South Korea, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Iran, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay.
In five visits to the US, Trinidad and Tobago, Sri Lanka, Isle of Man and Swaziland, she was only accompanied by Parliament officials while in the rest of the visits,she was also accompanied by MPs.
According to the reply, total expenses on these visits were Rs 9.89 crore. She also gave gifts worth Rs 11.66 lakh to her hosts.
In an easlier RTI revelation, it was found that the ministry of urban development waived off the Rs 2 crore it had billed the Speaker for her stay at 6, Krishna Menon Marg, the sprawling bungalow that was earlier with her late father,Jagjivan Ram. This bungalow has been converted into Jagjivan Ram Memorial.
