HYDERABAD, 11 April — The government of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is putting 253 of its 294 state legislators on a study tour of five countries, perhaps the first time a state government is spending so much money to send so many elected representatives abroad.
It is estimated the trips will cost the Chandrababu Naidu government 35.4 million rupees. Each legislator’s expenses, including travel, board and accommodation, will be about 140,000 rupees.
Beginning April 28, the members of the state legislative assembly (MLAs) will visit Malaysia, Singapore, China, South Korea and Thailand in four batches.
Each batch of about 60 legislators will visit these countries for 15 days. The tour will bring political rivals together. Legislators from the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition Congress party and other opposition parties like the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) will have the opportunity to travel together.
Officials said the tour would help legislators see the development achieved by the five countries so that the state could benefit from their experiences. The focus would be on industrial development, tourism, rural development and agricultural growth.
According to a tentative program, the legislators will spend four days in China and two days each in the other countries. In China, they will visit Shanghai’s special economic zone in the Pudong New Area, which has a financial center, a high-tech development park and an export processing and free trade zone.
The chief minister, who visited China last year, is impressed by its development and often cites the example of China and other countries to defend his economic reforms program. This has led to him being criticized by the opposition which says he is always looking to foreign countries as a “role model” and ignoring the basic problems in his own state.
