The Andhra Pradesh government has clarified that Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and State IT Minister Nara Lokesh do not use official helicopters or aircraft for their district tours and travel to other places.
The state government’s Fact Check team has rejected social media claims that crores of rupees from the state exchequer were being misused for special aircraft and helicopter travel by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Pawan Kalyan and Lokesh.
The Fact Check team said claims that the Andhra Pradesh Aviation Corporation Limited (APACL) was bearing the air-travel expenses of Pawan Kalyan and Lokesh for their official tours were incorrect.
According to the clarification, APACL’s budget is not meant exclusively for the Chief Minister’s travel. It also covers aviation requirements for the Governor, Union ministers visiting the state, air-ambulance services in tribal areas and special evacuation flights, including arrangements to bring stranded Telugu travellers back from countries such as Nepal.
The government said APACL had been allocated Rs 54.63 crore for the 2026-27 financial year. Of this amount, around Rs 30.95 crore had been released for the first two quarters — Rs 19.12 crore for the first quarter and Rs 11.83 crore for the second quarter.
The government also cited expenditure from previous years, stating that spending on district tours ranged from Rs 51.45 crore to Rs 55 crore annually between 2021-22 and 2023-24. Even during the COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, it said around Rs 30 crore was utilised.
The government said the Chief Minister has been travelling extensively across districts to monitor programmes including Pedala Sevalo, Swachh Andhra-Swarna Andhra, the distribution of pattadar passbooks and Sanjeevani. It maintained that the aviation expenditure was within the sanctioned budget.
The Fact Check team urged the public not to believe what it described as misleading social media claims regarding aviation expenditure.
