YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, along with his family members, left for Israel on Thursday, as part of his thanksgiving to Jesus Christ at Bethlehem for bestowing him with victory in the recent assembly elections in the state.

He would spend four days in Israel, visit several holy places there, besides meeting the local Israeli officials. He would return to Hyderabad in the early hours of August 5.

According to party sources, Jagan’s Israel visit is purely personal visit and all the expenses for his tour would be borne by his family.

However, hours before Jagan’s departure to Israel, the YSRC government issued a government order (GO Rt no. 1737 dated July 31), according sanction of Rs 22,52,500 towards providing security arrangements to him during his four-day visit to that country.

According to the GO, the amount would be credited to the account of Triple S Tours and Travels, for making security arrangements for Jagan and his family during the tour. Apparently, the agency submitted an invoice for US $ 30,591 for the purpose.

Interestingly, the amount of Rs 22.52 lakh would be routed through Airtravel Enterprises India Ltd, a Hyderabad-based travel agency, which is looking after the travel and other arrangements for Jagan and his family.

The GO does not mention what kind of security arrangements would be in place for Jagan in Israel and why it had to hire a private travel agency to provide security to him.

Since Jagan has the diplomatic passport, it would be enough to inform the local police about his visit for security arrangements, a political observer commented.

One also wonders why the money is being routed through a Hyderabad-based travel agency to another private agency in Israel.

“Both are travel agencies and not private security agencies. So, there is something fishy in these payments,” the observer said.