'Caste' doesn't get good press even in India. In Bangalore, the heat ferments the garbage and the drought has reduced the region to a 'dry bone', but state legislators - a hundred of them - are about to leave on a 'study vacation' in Argentina and other countries of South America. Public opinion is outraged. These 'study trips' – others are planned in Scandinavia and Russia for groups of 20 MPs each time – will each cost 60-70 million rupees (about 1 million euro).
The benefits? In the past years many state parliamentarians (like many delegations from the Italian regions) have gone overseas, returned and compiled diligent reports, based on their experiences, on how to improve infrastructure and urban furniture. But all these reports ended up in a drawer. The opposition, in the person of the chairman of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, observes: "Given what has happened with previous trips, there is really no need to waste any more money."
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