To help Akhilesh reach on time

When Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav presented the supplementary budget for 2013-14 on Wednesday, hidden away in the jumble of figures was Rs 40 crore set aside for the purchase of a new aircraft.

This raised a few eyebrows because Yadav, who also holds the finance portfolio in the state, already has a few flying machines at his beck and call. The new plane would be an addition in an official fleet that is already 10-craft strong. Yadav's aircraft comprise four Chetak, Bell and Avesta helicopters and six turbo-propelled King Air C90A, Beech Bonanza A-36, Super King Air 300 LW aircraft, which are all capable of carrying up to eight people.

These are earmarked for "VIP use" - this includes the chief minister himself, his father, and Samajwadi Party chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, senior cabinet ministers, among them his uncle Shivpal Yadav, and top officials.

Currently, five of the fleet are airworthy, the others either grounded for maintenance or for other reasons at the special facility adjacent to the Lucknow airport. To fly and maintain these, the chief minister has a roster of 10-12 pilots and a team of aero engineers. The government spent Rs 11.1 crore on repairs and Rs 3.35 crore on fuel last year.

The state civil aviation department owns 15 air strips at Ambedkar Nagar, Ghazipur, Sultanpur, Aligarh, Meerut, Farrukhabad, Faizabad, Kushingar, Sonebhadra, Kheri, Etawah, Shravasti, Moradabad, Azamgarh and Chitrkoot. Another airstrip in Jhansi has been given to the Indian Army. In the supplementary budget, Rs 170 crore was set aside for the expansion and modernisation of these facilities.