£1.5M DELHI Dancers Extravagance

COUNCIL bosses have been criticised for spending £1.5million on flying dancers to India.

Local authorities have revealed plans to send 400 people to perform a traditional dance at the Commonwealth Games flag handover ceremony in Delhi, at a cost of more than £3,500 a head.

Officials claim that the eight-minute performance in front of a stadium audience of 65,000 and one billion television viewers, will give vital publicity to Scotland.

But authorities such as Edinburgh City Council face savage cuts of up to £90million.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “This is an inappropriate way to spend taxpayers’ money when things are so bad back home.”

Each of Scotland’s 32 councils has been asked to underwrite the cost of sending up to nine dancers in October.

Tory finance spokesman Derek Brownlee said Scotland should be represented at the event, but warned: “Councils spending money and cutting back elsewhere will have questions to answer about their priorities.”