Travel dis-allowance

Some officials in the tourism ministry of West Bengal seem to be unhappy with their colleagues in the finance ministry for putting paid to their foreign tours in the coming festive season. The tourism ministry of the state made a proposal last month to send its representatives to the upcoming tourism festivals in Singapore, London and Berlin. But the finance ministry of the debt-ridden state is unlikely to approve the proposal that would have incurred a cost of about Rs 50 lakh. An official of the tourism department, who was pinning his hopes on the proposal to make his first visit to Singapore this October, rued, “My post-puja plan now seems to be scrapped.”