New Delhi, June 6: The Yojana Bhavan toilets are causing a stink of a different kind. The Planning Commission, which estimated a poverty line figure of Rs 28 per day per person, lavished Rs 35 lakh on refurbishing two toilets in its headquarters.
For good measure, the commission has admitted in an RTI response, it has spent Rs 5.19 lakh in installing an access control system in the toilets. The facility, installed while the toilets were renovated recently, is aimed at limiting access to only those people who had smart cards.
According to data given to RTI activist SC Agrawal, 60 smart cards were issued to Plan panel officials.
The commission had also decided to install CCTV cameras in the corridors leading to these toilets as the officials said there were instances of pilferage in the washrooms. Estimates have been sought from the CPWD.
The disclosure comes on the back of reports that Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had spent over Rs 2 lakh per day on foreign travel between May and October 2011. Another report said that he undertook 42 official trips aggregating 274 days between June 2004 and January 2011 at a cost of Rs 2.34 crore.
Refuting the inferences drawn, Ahluwalia had said that foreign travels are needed for discharge of official duties.
In its response, the Plan panel has said the system in the toilets is still to be made operational. However, sources said that the door access system was disabled within hours of the toilets being declared fit for use after protests from people working on the floor.
A note from the commission officials proposing the upgrade of toilets last year shows that the two toilets to be renovated as a pilot project and after execution of the work, decision on renovation of other washrooms would be taken.
Times View
At a time when the government is ostensibly in the midst of an austerity drive, it seems unacceptably extravagant for Rs 35 lakh to be spent on a couple of toilets. What adds to the irony is the fact that it the same Planning Commission that informs us that it is possible for Indians to survive on sums as measly as less than Rs 32 a day.
Surely it cannot fail to see how absurd the situation is. If the government advocates belt tightening, examples must be set at the very top of the hierarchy. Such examples of splurging rob its message of any meaning.
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