Austerity, who cares
Cong govt drinks tea worth Rs 40 lakh
The austerity drive initiated by the Congress-led UPA
government at the Centre has failed to have much of an influence on the party's government in Puducherry.
A query under RTI has revealed that Puducherry chief minister V. Vaithilingam and his five cabinet colleagues have spent more than Rs 36 lakh on tea, snacks and beverages while hosting visitors in their respective offices in the Assembly in the eight months between September 2008 and April 2009.
Welfare minister M. Kandasamy topped the list among the spenders. He spent Rs 10.48 lakh on tea, snacks, beverages and other food items. His visitors included officials and elected members.
The chief minister’ office was not far behind Kandasamy. It forked out Rs 9.86 lakh. The chief minister’s office ordered food items worth Rs 1.06 lakh from a local hotel on a single day in September 2008. This was not an one-off incident.
Home minister E. Valsaraj’s office bought sweets worth Rs 60,000 on December 5, 2008. All of them showed a marked preference for certain hotels and restaurants.
The RTI query was filed by P. Ragupathy, secretary of the Rajiv Gandhi Human Rights Awareness Organisation.Satisfied with the shocking findings of the RTI application, he told TSI:
“Even last year, I had filed an RTI petition to find out personal expenses of different welfare boards and corporation chairmen in Puducherry. Expenses of only 12 out of 20 were revealed which ranged between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. All these appointments are political ones and a court case about the matter is currently on.” The findings have shocked local activists, but not the chief minister. “The expenses incurred by the previous council of ministers stood at Rs 1.1 crore for a year. We reduced the expenses by half this year,” he said. A senior official said politicians were setting a wrong example by spending so much money on tea, and other things. Puducherry is witnessing a financial crunch and its government is lobbying for statehood. Perhaps, cabinets in other states of India will spend more than what has been spent in Puduchery. But what makes this amount shocking is the tiny size of the cabinet. But the politicians are not the only ones to blame, even officials are spending exorbitant amounts of money. Such is the bad publicity they have received after this revelation, may be ministers will stop serving tea to their guests, quiped a senior scribe.
Cong govt drinks tea worth Rs 40 lakh
The austerity drive initiated by the Congress-led UPA
government at the Centre has failed to have much of an influence on the party's government in Puducherry.A query under RTI has revealed that Puducherry chief minister V. Vaithilingam and his five cabinet colleagues have spent more than Rs 36 lakh on tea, snacks and beverages while hosting visitors in their respective offices in the Assembly in the eight months between September 2008 and April 2009.
Welfare minister M. Kandasamy topped the list among the spenders. He spent Rs 10.48 lakh on tea, snacks, beverages and other food items. His visitors included officials and elected members.
The chief minister’ office was not far behind Kandasamy. It forked out Rs 9.86 lakh. The chief minister’s office ordered food items worth Rs 1.06 lakh from a local hotel on a single day in September 2008. This was not an one-off incident.
Home minister E. Valsaraj’s office bought sweets worth Rs 60,000 on December 5, 2008. All of them showed a marked preference for certain hotels and restaurants.
The RTI query was filed by P. Ragupathy, secretary of the Rajiv Gandhi Human Rights Awareness Organisation.Satisfied with the shocking findings of the RTI application, he told TSI:
“Even last year, I had filed an RTI petition to find out personal expenses of different welfare boards and corporation chairmen in Puducherry. Expenses of only 12 out of 20 were revealed which ranged between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. All these appointments are political ones and a court case about the matter is currently on.” The findings have shocked local activists, but not the chief minister. “The expenses incurred by the previous council of ministers stood at Rs 1.1 crore for a year. We reduced the expenses by half this year,” he said. A senior official said politicians were setting a wrong example by spending so much money on tea, and other things. Puducherry is witnessing a financial crunch and its government is lobbying for statehood. Perhaps, cabinets in other states of India will spend more than what has been spent in Puduchery. But what makes this amount shocking is the tiny size of the cabinet. But the politicians are not the only ones to blame, even officials are spending exorbitant amounts of money. Such is the bad publicity they have received after this revelation, may be ministers will stop serving tea to their guests, quiped a senior scribe.
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