Indian
Express: Bengaluru: Sunday, 31 January 2016.
Political
leaders are good at preaching about the spirit of conservation of energy and
water for the citizens, but seem to be quite bad when it comes to practicing
what they preach.
Expenses by
several ministers, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on water and
electricity has jumped by two to eight times in just one year.
Even as the
state suffered the worst power shutdown and water crisis in years, the water
and electricity bills of the ministers’ official residences has spiked.
Information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act revealed the
abnormal increase in the electricity and water bills of some cabinet ministers.
The document,
available with Express, shows that the state government had spent Rs
1,10,79.254 towards electricity and water bills of the Chief Minister and the
then Ministers over two-and-a-half years, between 2013 to 2015 up to September.
In 2013-14, the expenditure was Rs 21,56,967 and in 2014-15, it jumped up to Rs
66,07,955 while in 2015-16 up to September, the amount touched Rs 23,14,332.
The CM and
Law Minister T B Jayachandra, Forest Minister Ramanatha Rai, Rural Development
Minister H K Patil, Revenue Minister Srinivasa Prasad, Cooperation Minister H C
Mahedavappa, Health Minister.
U T Khader
and IT-BT Minister S R Patil spent more money towards electricity and water
bills.
RTI activist
Marilinga Gowda Malipatil, who got the information under RTI, termed it as a
wasteful expenditure. Patil said, “Even if they are allowed to claim the bills,
is this the way of using the benefit? Just look at the expenses made by each
one of them. It is more than the entire annual expenditure of a middle-class
family.” “When the expense is this much, then it is understood that they have
used the power and water worth that amount, or are claiming wrong bills. If
that is the case, the amount should be recovered,” Patil demanded.
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