Congress seeks white paper on outcome of Shivraj Singh Chouhan's foreign trips, urges report to be made public

Bhopal: The Congress on Sunday demanded a ‘white paper’ on the outcome of official foreign trips undertaken by Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan after he assumed office. Chouhan became chief minister in late 2005 and since then he has undertaken about 15 foreign trips during which he was accompanied by delegations that included government officials and private persons, leader of opposition in the assembly Ajay Singh of the Congress said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_4173473” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. AFP[/caption] “We demand a white paper on the outcome of Chouhan’s foreign trips,” Singh said. He said the white paper (a government report giving information on an issue) should include details of expenditure, meeting with companies during such trips and agreements for proposed investments in the state. “The state government should also make it public how these foreign tours benefited the people of Madhya Pradesh,” the Congress leader maintained. “A huge amount of taxpayers’ money has been spent on foreign tours of the chief minister. So, public has all the rights to know the outcome of such visits,” he added. Singh said he had urged Chouhan to cancel his visit to the United States in view of the problems being faced by farmers but he still went ahead with the trip. Chouhan is returning to Bhopal on Sunday evening from a week-long trip of the US.