AGARTALA, Dec 3 (TIWN): Opposition parties Congress and BJP on Thusday came down heavily on Chief Minister Manik Sarkar for using helicopter to cover short distance during campaigning for election scheduled to be held on December 9.Ministry of Development of Northeast Region (DoNER) has been subsidizing double engine nine seated Pawan Hans helicopter service for emergency civilian movement within the state, mostly for evacuation of patients since long.Leader of the opposition Sudip Roybarman alleged that like previous elections, Mr Sarkar along with his personal staff has been using the helicopter for campaigning even for Ambassa, about 70 km from Agartala, taking advantage of central subsidy.“In past three days, CPI-M has paid only Rs 15,000 for Chief Minister’s helicopter movement in Dharmanagar, Kailashahar and Ambassa in North Tripura while equal amount of money was paid from public exchequer towards the payment of his personal security. But the total expenditure incurred is more than Rs 3 lakhs, which has to be paid by the Central government,” Mr Roybarman alleged.He, however, pointed out that Mr Sarkar had hit the headlines when he was travelling to Jorhat in Assam by an intercity express for a party programme in September last.

Mr Sarkar portrayed himself as a common man despite being a Chief Minister and in an interview he said he prefer to travel like a common man, he alleged.

“But in practice whenever he moves in North or South districts even for party programme he always opts subsidized helicopter meant for civilians’ movement, he said