Plan panel cuts its toilet cost by half

The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) on Friday told panel member secretary Sindhushree Khullar that two modern toilet blocks had cost about Rs 15 lakh, as against the earlier figure of Rs 35 lakh.

Updated on: Jun 26, 2012, 11:37:10 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Hit by adverse publicity, the cost of super luxury toilets in the country's top advisory body the Planning Commission has halved.

The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) on Friday told panel member secretary Sindhushree Khullar that two modern toilet blocks had cost about Rs 15 lakh, as against the earlier figure of Rs 35 lakh.

The plan panel had received a lot of flak for building such high-end toilets when it was classifying those earning less than R32 in urban areas per day as poor. Plan panel deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia had justified the spending saying it was not exorbitant and done as per government rules. He had termed the comparison of toilet cost with poverty figures as unfortunate.

Now it has come to light that the cost of toilets was stated higher than what was spent. The CPWD officials also reportedly admitted to this faux pas before Khullar, who threatened to get the engineers concerned suspended. But the question is why the plan panel did not get the mistake rectified before disbursing funds to the CPWD after the toilets were constructed. Documents accessed by RTI activist Subhash Chandra Aggarwal indicate that never an attempt was made by the plan panel to get the initial estimate of the toilets revised. The panel went by what the CPWD quoted.

The panel, which has already paid to CPWD for construction of two toilets, will now ask the department for a refund. “They (CPWD) officials have categorically been told to refund the excess amount,” he said.

However, it is not known whether the panel will initiate action against its own senior officials who never objected to high cost estimate given by CPWD. Panel functionaries also said there should be detailed inquiry into the lapse at the part of official in-charge of administration in the panel.

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

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