Badal (Muktsar), November 24
A house for the Chief Minister. That is what the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) rest house in this village effectively is. Never mind the fact that the PSEB builds rest houses to facilitate its officers and that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has a sprawling residence here.
Giving information under the RTI act, the power board states that the rest house has been extended to facilitate the “sangat darshan” programmes of the Chief Minister and provide a place for him to meet the VIPs.
The PSEB seems to have gone overboard in not only constructing the rest house but also renovating it recently. According to the information gathered under the RTI by Bathinda activist Charanjit Bhullar, Rs 1.08 crore was spent on constructing the rest house, work on which started in 1997 when Badal took over the reins of the state during his last tenure, and another Rs 1 crore was spent when he came to power again in 2007.
Sample the comforts laid out for the Chief Minister. Double beds for the VIP rooms at a cost of Rs 60,000, four chairs for Rs 26,000 and wooden flooring for Rs 1.8 lakh. A table worth Rs 34,000 was procured for the conference room while the dining table cost Rs 25,000. More than Rs 8 lakh were spent on procuring furniture for the
rest house between March 2007 and April 2008 besides spending money on a 50 KV generator and three air conditioners.
When Badal took over as the Chief Minister this time, barracks were also built alongside the rest house for the stay of 50 police personnel. The caretaker showed dormitories besides the rooms, including the two VIP rooms, where no luxury has been spared. He informed the TNS team that the CM visited the rest house every week but did not stay for the night. It is his entourage that uses the facility for night stay.
Ironically, PSEB officials have hardly made any use of the facilities themselves. Only 110 guests have stayed in the rest house in the last nine years. The board has received a meager fee of Rs 2,600 for the stay of 90 of these guests. In direct contrast, the rest house has run up electricity bills of Rs 6.97 lakh from 2001-2007. The power bill for the last two-and-a-half-years has been more than Rs 3 lakh.
The board has also spent Rs 8 lakh on employees posted at the facility.
Board chairman HS Brar said the rest house has been built on need bases. “New power stations are coming up in the area,” he said. When asked that the power board officials were not using the facility, he stated that some of them were using it during daytime. “Our officers have to be present during the sangat darshan programmes of the Chief Minister,” he said.
(To be continued)
