Ministers take to austerity measures following Pranab Mukherjee's example

The finance ministry's austerity drive has evoked positive response from ministers across various portfolios with several ministers repotedly travelling economy class on budget airlines.

Agriculture minister from NCP Sharad Pawar, who had been reported as saying he might not fit into the normal economy seat of a budget airline, flew economy class from the capital back to Mumbai, and will henceforth travel in the economy class.

He had earlier reportedly cited various reasons for travelling by business class. The NCP leader has also inquired about five star lunches and dinners hosted for foreign dignitaries and whether these would continue as a practice.

The issuecame in the news when external affairs minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor, who were staying in five star hotels, were asked by Pranab Mukherjee to move over to less expensive premises. Mukherjee had also questioned the unbridled display of wealth by ministers.

Krishna has decided that he will henceforth not travel by special jets for foreign visits. For his forthcoming trip to Belarus and Turkmenistan, he will now travel by a commercial airliner with only two members, down from the original 20.

Mukherjee has led by example by travelling in economy class in a budger airline to Kolkata. He said he had travelled economy class throughout the election period this year.

After initial reluctance, the austerity drive has received support from several ministers such as railway minister Mamata Banerjee, Praful Patel, civil aviation minister, Dinesh Trivedi, minister of state for health, and Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for environment.

Patel recently took a low-cost airline to fly to Mumbai, while Vilasrao Deshmukh, union minister for heavy industries, also utilised a budget carrier, and Sushilkumar Shinde, the power minister, went to Delhi by economy class in Air India.