The following piece from today's Indian Express (front page) will
interest you all... and follows up what you wrote earlier on and my
response.
Peace and regards -- dev c.
"Raipur hosts put foot down, told Bedi can't pay you twice for same flight
"Former IPS officer and Team Anna's Kiran Bedi claimed today that she
was only trying to "save money" to educate children when she claimed
full air fare — in many cases, even Business class — from her hosts
while buying Economy at 75% discount thanks to her police gallantry
medal.
At least one host put its foot down.
Referring to the The Indian Express report, Chhattisgarh, an evening
newspaper, today reported on how in January this year, Bedi was
invited by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Raipur, to attend the annual day
function of its school R K Sharda Mandir and deliver a lecture on
'Probity In Public Life'.
O P Singhania, the secretary of the Bhavan and its accountant as well,
told The Indian Express that Bedi's office asked for full Business
class fare.
Meanwhile, Hanumant Yadav, a senior professor at the Hidayatullah
National Law University in Raipur, who is also a member of the
governing body of the Bhavan, invited Bedi to visit the law university
to deliver a lecture the same day.
"Since she was in town, we thought why not call her to the university.
And because the Bhavan was paying her fare, we thought she would not
charge from us," said a university official.
But Bedi's office asked for Business class fare from the university
too, said an official. Because Yadav was both with the Bhavan and the
university, he alerted both.
"The university told us that she was charging from them also. They
told us that either we pay or you pay," Singhania told The Indian
Express. "In the end, the university paid her fare."
That's not all. Her office claimed Business class fare even though the
flight that she used had only Economy class, said a university
official. "We had to decline the Business class request and we paid
her Economy fare," he said.
According to the report in Chhattisgarh, her office had asked for Rs
30,000. "She was eventually paid not more than Rs 9,000-10,000 by the
university," added Singhania.
Asked why her office had approached both the Bhavan and the university
and asked each to pay for what was the same journey, Bedi told The
Indian Express: "No one has claimed (anything). Every thing is
offered, the invitees invite and offer. And anything saved is ploughed
into the (India Vision) Foundation (her NGO) for causes. So what is
the issue? Who is the beneficiary? Not me. It's back to causes. I
donate all my book royalties, writing honorariums, award moneys,
speaker fees and more. And most of all my time and energy... (I)
choose to travel to reach out for the larger good."
Quoted from the Indian Express of 21 st Oct. 2011 -- not a word from me!
***
On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 7:28 AM, Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/raipur-hosts-put-foot-down-told-bedi-cant-pay-you-twice-for-same-flight/863124/
>
> The cheek of this woman (Kiran Bedi) and her "double" standards. Who are
> these people to lecture us on corruption ? Who are all these Magsaysay
> awardees (bloody CIA spies) who presume to lecture us on RTI and aspire to
> become Chief Information Commissioners ?.
>
>
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