Indian
Express: Mumbai: Wednesday, 27 May 2015.
The
Mantralaya officials have run up a bill of Rs 4.66 lakh for 24,684 litres of
bottled water in the past five months, according to a reply received to a Right
To Information (RTI) application.
The reply
given by the state to the application filed by RTI activist Anil Galgali states
that between December 2014 and April 2015, a total of 83,628 bottles of water
were purchased. These include 68,976 bottles of 250 ml which cost Rs 3,67,642,
14,496 bottles of 500 ml which cost Rs 96,688 and 156 one-litre bottles which
cost Rs 1,689.
Galgali has
claimed that the officials are using bottled water despite having access to
filtered water in the Mantralaya. He has stated that the same quantity of water
accessed from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s water distribution
system would have cost Rs 171.
The BMC
presently charges Rs 6.912 for every 1000 litre it distributes. “The CM should
instruct the use of BMC water only. If any Minister or Babu wants to consume
bottled mineral water, they should pay from their pockets for that,” Galgali
said in a letter to the chief minister.
The
government has, however, claimed it is not doing anything wrong by purchasing
mineral water. “There is no centralised purchase of bottled water. Each
department purchases bottles according to its need. Money for the same is taken
from the office expenses fund. All the staff and guests also have access to
Bisleri water,” Sumit Mallick, additional chief secretary, Protocol, said.
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