Hindustan
Times: Mumbai: Tuesday, 11 August 2015.
Even as
Maharashtra is reeling under a financial crisis, 15 ministers in the state have
spent around Rs 2 crore only on renovating their offices. Among these, the
highest amount was spent by minister of state for Housing Ravindra Waikar (Rs
33.99 lakh) and public works department (PWD) minister Chandrakant Patil (Rs
31.88 lakh), respectively, reveals a right to information (RTI) reply given to
activist Anil Galgali by the general administration department (GAD).
The 15
ministers include nine cabinet and six ministers of state. The third and fourth
highest amount of Rs 20.48 lakh and Rs 20.24 lakh was spent by minister, tribal
welfare, Vishnu Sawra and minister for education (schools) Vinod Tawde,
respectively.
Following
this, MoS, home, Dr Ranjit Patil and minister for housing Prakash Mehta have
spent Rs 15.53 lakh and Rs 14.27 lakh respectively, while irrigation minister
Girish Mahajan has undertaken renovation work in his office worth Rs 13.43lakh.
Besides, the
other ministers who have spent between Rs 2-Rs 10 lakh to give their workplaces
a facelift include MoS for women and children welfare Vidya Thakur (Rs
9.98lakh), MoS revenue Sanjay Rathod (Rs 9.96 lakh), PWD minister Eknath Shinde
(Rs 9.92 lakh), social welfare minister Rajkumar Badole (Rs 4.83 lakh), MOS
social welfare Dilip Kamble (Rs 4.67 lakh), food and civil supplies minister
Girish Bapat (Rs 4.46 lakh), MoS finance Deepak Kesarkar (Rs 4 lakh) and power
minister Chandra Shekhar Bawankule (Rs 2.19 lakh).
“On the one
hand the state government is claiming that their coffers are empty and on the
other they are generously spending to renovate their offices,” Anil Gagali
said.
When
contacted, Chandrakant Patil said, “The renovation work has been undertaken by
my department but I have still not gone into the details of the expenses. Now,
I will look at whether these expenses were for one office or for my other
offices as well. Similarly, I will check if these are expenses incurred
recently or pending for many years?” Calls and messages to Vinod Tawde and
Ravindra Waikar were unanswered.
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