Daijiworld Media Network: Hubballi 

Hubballi, Nov 2: After receiving criticism on planning an 11-day foreign trip, minister of large and medium scale industries Jagadish Shettar has cancelled his plan. 

The minister told reporters in Hubballi on Friday that he is not craving for foreign trips and has cancelled the same in view of the flood situation in Belagavi and other parts of North Karnataka. 

According to sources, Shettar was scheduled to travel from November 6 to 17, as he had received invitations from China and United Kingdom to attend an investors’ meet. 

He was supposed to visit China for six days and United Kingdom for four days to attend the Corporate Governance and Global Business Meet in London. 

Along with Shettar, eight senior officials including commerce and industries principal secretary Gaurav Gupta, were supposed to attend the meet. 

However, what irked people was Shettar’s wife Shilpa Shettar was also part of the contingent. 

“The tour was planned after receiving an official invite from China and the United Kingdom for investors meet. It is my duty to bring more investment to State as I am the industries minister. This could have been a good opportunity but I have cancelled the same in wake of floods,” Shettar who is also the district-in-charge minister of Belagavi said. 

Shettar further clarified that while flight tickets for him and eight other officials were sponsored by state government, he had already proposed to bear the expenses of his wife’s ticket.