Ambulance

After probe, Ministry divests Amitabh Banerjee of IRFC charge; frivolous allegations, it's vendetta, he says.

“It is the visa issuing authority that ultimately decides the duration of the visa, no matter what the applicant asks. Regarding the visa fee, Banerjee said that the 10-year visa was at the discretion of the visa issuing authority. “The Board of Directors approved leasing of the house as ‘directors’ guest house’. Sources said the CBI subsequently filed a closure report in the matter without charges. In another set of allegations being probed by Railways, Banerjee got a 10-year UK visa in 2019 for his official travel to the country for which he claimed a visa fee of around Rs 98,000. Why else am I paying Rs 900 per day to the guest house?” he said. In another set of allegations, Banerjee hired an ambulance from a private vendor for his ailing mother during the second wave of the Covid pandemic in April last year and took a reimbursement of Rs 1.54 lakh as ambulance charge to transport the patient from Green Park to Apollo Hospital in Jasola. Another ambulance was hired for Rs 19,000 to shift the patient from Apollo to the Northern Railway hospital. When nothing materialised, the company took the property on lease. He cannot be removed outright without approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, which may take around two-three months,” the source said. There are a lot of entries described as “miscellaneous items” including a Shoppers Stop bill of Rs 9,000. Expenses of consumables ranged around Rs 30,000 a month.