Planning Commission splurges Rs 35 lakh to upgrade 2 toilets

June 6, 2012

ToiletNew 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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Agencies
March 24,2020

Kochi, Mar 24: A 54-year-old domestic passenger was arrested at the airport here for allegedly refusing to follow instructions given by doctorsfor prevention of the spread of novel coronavirus, police said here on Tuesday.

Lami Arackal from Ernakulam, who landed from Chennai at the Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery on Monday night, was arrested based on a complaint from health officials, they said.

He was, however, later released on bail.

Arackal allegedly refused to wear mask and follow other instructions to be observed by the passengers coming from other states as part of the measures to check COVID-19 spread.

He also allegedly misbehaved with the medical officers, police said.

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News Network
June 6,2020

Kota (Rajasthan), Jun 6: A 14-year-old boy allegedly hanged himself to death on early Saturday morning shortly after he stopped playing PUBG throughout the night and went to sleep, said police. 

Railway Colony police station’s in-charge Hansraj Meena said the boy, a class 9 student and son of an Army man, was found hanging from the grill of the ventilator in his bedroom on early Saturday morning. 

Meena said according to the boy’s family members, the boy had downloaded the gaming programme on his mother’s mobile phone only three days back but had been playing the game virtually continuously for the last three days. 

He kept on playing the game till 3 am in a room in which his brother was studying, said Meena, adding the boy went to adjoining to sleep after that. His body was found hanging from the ventilator’s grill in the morning, he said, adding the boy was rushed to MBS Hospital, where he was declared “brought dead”. 

No suicide note was recovered in the case, the SHO said. The boy lived in Gandhi Colony in the city along with his mother and brother, while his father, a Tamil Nadu native and Army man, is currently posted in Arunachal Pradesh. The boy’s body has been kept in hospital’s morgue for the postmortem, the SHO said.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Nagpur, July 21: In a shocking incident, an 11-year-old boy allegedly killed self in Maharashtra's Nagpur city after being reprimanded by his mother for buying a samosa, police said on Tuesday.

Veeru Natthu Sahu was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his home in Ganga Nagar in Gittikhadan area on Sunday night, an official said.

The deceased boy's family was struggling to make ends meet after their small business was hit because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, he said.

The Class 7 student had taken Rs 10 from home without asking his mother and bought a samosa, which was then eaten by his elder brother, the official said.

The boy's mother scolded him for taking money without her permission and asked him to get the snack for himself, following which the distraught minor allegedly went into the kitchen and hanged himself using a saree, he said.

The Gittikhadan police have registered a case of accidental death in this regard, the official added.

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