- TRAVEL BILL REIMBURSEMENT SCAM HITS SHIRDI SANSTHAN TRUST 17th Nov`2011

For meetings / Official work, the Trustees of the Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust`Shirdi have to regularly travel to places for which, apart from the 20 odd Cars owned by the Shirdi Sansthan Trust, the Trustees are allowed to rent a car also. In doing so, the travel expenses incurred are then later reimbursed to the trustees by the Shirdi Sansthan Trust. But now a 'Travel Bill Reimbursement Scam' of the Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust`Shirdi has come to light. Using the RTI (Right To Information) Act, Shri.Sanjay Kale, an RTI activist sought the Travel Expenses information of 4 of the total 17 trustees and found that the Travel Bill expenses of just these 4 Trustees in the past 8 years was around Rs.6 lakhs which they had falsely claimed from the Shirdi Sai Baba Sansthan. As evidence, Shri.Sanjay Kale has collected the copies of their Travel Bills & the Registration Certificate of the vehicles used by them. These copies clearly show the Date of Travel, Used Vehicles Number, Kilometers Traveled and the Amount Claimed as reimbursement. Through the RTO (Regional Transport Office) Shri.Sanjay Kale found that the Vehicle Numbers mentioned on these Bills were not of Cars as specified by the Shirdi Sansthan rules but were of Motorcycles, Scooters, Govt Cars and a Truck also. Citing the registration numbers of these vehicles the Trustees traveled thousands of kilometers for official/personal work and later claimed an Reimbursement calculated @ Rs.7/- to Rs.8/- per Kilometer. Whereas according to the rules of the Shirdi Sansthan Trust the Trustees can claim only Rs.4/- per Kilometer while traveling for any Official work and that even by Cars like Innova, Scorpio or Xylo only. In its investigations NDTV news also found that the Vehicle Owners of the Vehicles mentioned by the Trustees in their Bill, were also not aware about any of this. So, why do the Trustees prefer taking rented cars for long distance travels when the Sansthan itself owns 20 Cars.

The Sansthan also took special Registration Numbers for 5 Cars @ Rs.10,000/- for each Car Number and the Bill was paid from the donations received by the Sansthan from devotees. This expense was not shown officially in the donation slip book. Shri.Sanjay Kale also plans to use the RTI act to find out the Travel Bill claims made by the remaining Trustees also, because if the Travel expenses Claims of just these 4 Trustees is so much then it has to be seen as to how much will it all add up to when the details of the claims made by the remaining Trustees also comes forward. For the time being, Shri.Sanjay Kale, taking Legal Action against these Trustees, has filed a complaint in the Court of Judicial magistrate (first class) S D Kamath at Rahata. He said that there was no need to seek prior permission for filing the case against the trustees of the Temple. The complaint has been filed under the sections dealing with preparing bogus documents & indulging in irregularities & malpractices resulting in a total misuse of the funds donated by lakhs of devotees. On the other hand, when the Shirdi Sansthan was questioned about this Scam, all they said was that there could have been a mistake in mentioning the Vehicle Numbers and they would comment only after investigating it further.

"shOuld we Build mOre Shrines fOr Our Deities Or hOmes fOr the hOmeless ? shOuld we Offer Shawls tO Our Deities, Or clOthes tO the Naked ? shOuld we Offer Sweetmeats tO Our Deities, Or fOOd tO the Starving ? shOuld we Offer Our Prayers tO Our Deities, Or be the Answered Prayers fOr the Needy

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shOuld we nOurish the bOdy of religiOus Shrines, Or shOuld we nOurish the bOdy of Living Beings ?

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