SHILLONG: Lakhs of rupees were spent on food alone for the limited guests who attended the Indian Panorama Festival held here for four days from March 3 this year.
For 23 guests who attended the Indian Panorama Festival here and stayed at Hotel Pinewood, the District Information and Public Relations office spent over Rs 16 lakh (total Rs. 16,43,893) under the category ‘food for guests’ and in addition in another category under ‘lunch and dinner’, the money spent was a whopping Rs. 24 lakh ( total Rs. 24,09,104) as per the reply to an RTI query.
The total amount for food alone at Pinewood Hotel was Rs. 40,52,997.
The money spent for food and lodging for only four guests who stayed at Blue Berry Inn is over Rs. 14 lakh. The four guests who stayed at Blue Berry Inn were M. Kak (five days), Nistha Jain, Pinky B Chaudhury and Rakesh Haridas (all 6 days each).
Three guests, Ranjan Dutta, S Desai and P Lekha did not avail any accommodation.
The amount paid for the rooms for the guests at Pinewood Hotel is Rs. 3,55,985. Though only 23 guests stayed at Hotel Pinewood for the days ranging from 1 to 6, a total of 28 rooms were booked as per the reply provided by the Public Information Officer, DIPR, to the RTI applicant Agnes Kharshiing.
This means that out of the total amount of Rs. 87,07,890 spent for the entire Indian Panorama Festival, more than half was spent on food alone.
The expenditure incurred for the use of Convention Centre, part of Hotel Pinewood, is Rs 337080.
While the flight fares for the guests were Rs. 7,94,716, for the category under “Even Manager Logistic Budget” a whopping Rs. 27,29,774 was spent.
The DIPR in its reply further said that though the total estimate of Rs. 87,07,890 was sent to the Government for sanction, the Government released Rs. 76,39,184 and the remaining Rs. 10,68,706 will be processed in the financial year 2014-15.
The guests who stayed at Hotel Pinewood include Rizhan Ahmed, Tanu Rai, Ronnie Lahiri, K Hariharan, Kainath Arora, Bruna, Raghuvendra Singh, Rajeev Jain, P. Bose, Nawazuddin Siddique, Mangesh Hadawala, Deepak Jha, Paoli Dam, Veena Bakshi, Gautam Ghosh, Anjan Dutta, Hardik Mehta, Chuman Das, Kirron Kher, Julie, Ameesha Patel, Jayanta Roy and V. Chakraborty.
Expenditure break-up
Pinewood Hotel
Rooms: Rs. 3,55,985
Convention Centre: Rs. 33,7080
Food for Guests: Rs. 16,43,893
Lunch and Dinner: Rs. 24,09104
Blue Berry Inn
Food and Lodging: Rs. 14,4216
Flight Fares: Rs. 7,94,716
Event Manager Logistic Budget: Rs. 27,29,774