MPs prefer hotel, Govt picks up tab

Even as it is housing 74 MPs, the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) is yet to be paid for the stay of 32 members of the earlier House in its hotels during 2004-05.

Updated on: Sep 16, 2009, 24:22:11 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Housing for Members of Parliament, or lack of it, continues to be a drain on exchequer.

Even as it is housing 74 MPs, the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) is yet to be paid for the stay of 32
members of the earlier House in its hotels during 2004-05.

The urban development ministry, which also oversees housing requirements of MPs, owes the corporation Rs 40 lakh (Rs 4 million).

It, however, has refused to pay, saying as the MPs overstayed and should have shifted out once they were allocated accommodation. The ITDC claims it wasn’t told to get the rooms vacated.

A senior ITDC official, who didn’t wish to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said it was a case of miscommunication.

In a reply to a Right to Information application filed by activist Subhash Chandra Aggarwal, the government said 32 members of the 14th Lok Sabha preferred hotels over official accommodation, costing the exchequer Rs 40 lakh.

In fact, prolonged stay by two of them — Congress’s K.S. Rao and Ram Kripal Yadav — cost Rs 1 00,000, the RTI reply said.

Even as the government is talking austerity, 74 MPs are at present staying in ITDC hotels in the Capital. The tab: Rs 225,000 every day (Rs 6,000 per room per day).

“The tax payers money is being drained because the government has failed to get the flats occupied by former MPs vacated,” Aggarwal said.

J.P. Aggarwal, chairperson, Parliamentary Standing Committee on allocation of homes to MPs, blamed the delay on the members and the ministry.

“We’ve allocated homes to every new member. It is for the ministry to get the homes vacated…,” he said.

A former MP must move out of official residence within a month of the constitution of the new House, which was done in May this time. Until August-end, 50 of them were yet to move out.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.