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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia defends Rs 35L spent on toilets-Abheek Barman

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia defends Rs 35L spent on toilets-Abheek Barman

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published Published on Jun 7, 2012   modified Modified on Jun 7, 2012

While the government wants India to tighten its belt, the Planning Commission can afford to, well, flush with cash. 

On Wednesday, Commission chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that Rs 35 lakh spent on two toilets in his office was not public money down the drain. 

Ahluwalia explained that these were not toilets, but "toilet complexes." 

Each of these complexes can accommodate 10 people at a time. He did not specify whether taxpayers would be welcome to tour, if not use, the toilet complex they had paid for. 

Later, a press release clarified that anyone in the Commission, and not just the 50-odd dignitaries who were to be issued smart cards in the original scheme, could use the facilities. 

"Because there have been instances of pilferages of newly constructed toilets, an access-control system was initially tried, but not found feasible in practice," said the release. 

Though the release acknowledged the continuing risk of pilferage, it did not reveal how the Commission would prevent miscreants from carting home expensive taps, basins and commodes from the new toilet complexes. 

The Commission also did not specify whether it would equip its new toilet complexes with the $80 toilet rolls which were purchased by the organizers of Delhi's Commonwealth Games two years ago. Television footage did not reveal any Jacuzzis in the toilet complexes. 

In the recent past, Ahluwalia has defended the Commission's position that any urban Indian who could survive on around Rs 30 daily, could not be called poor. 

An earlier RTI query revealed that through May and October 2011, Ahluwalia had made four overseas trips on which he had spent Rs 2.02 lakh - every day.

The Economic Times, 7 June, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/planning-commission-deputy-chairman-montek-singh-ahluwalia-defends-rs-35l-spent-on-toilets/articleshow/138763


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