PUDUCHERRY: BENGALURU: The state government has spent a whopping Rs 21.30 crore of taxpayers’ money on renovation and repair of residences of various chief ministers and cabinet ministers between 2008 and 2014.
In addition, Rs 14.86 crore has been spent in the past 10 years on furnishing the residences based on the netas’ preferences, according to documents released by Bheemappa Gundappa Gadad, an RTI activist from Gokak in Belagavi district, on Wednesday.The documents obtained under the RTI Act include the amount of money spent on furnishings of various official residences under different chief ministers. During Dharam Singh’s tenure as CM (May 2004-2006), Rs 388.94 lakh was spent on furnishing the residences of cabinet ministers.
When H D Kumaraswamy was the CM (February 2006-07), the amount spent on furnishings increased to Rs 469.84 lakh, but decreased to Rs 345.72 lakh during B S Yeddyurappa’s tenure (May 2008-2011). During Sadananda Gowda’s tenure (August 2011-July 2012), it was Rs 56.55 lakh and when Jagadish Shettar was CM (July 2012-May 2013), Rs 74.90 lakh was spent. Currently, since Siddaramaiah assumed charge as CM, Rs 150.88 lakh has already been spent.
“Among the official residences, the maximum has been spent on ‘Cauvery’, the CM’s residence, amounting to Rs 396 lakh in the past six years on repair and renovation. ‘Anugraha’ (another residence of CM) stands at the second place with Rs 143 lakh being spent,” Gadad said.
He added that in a reply that he received from the state government, it was mentioned that none of the additional furnishings bought during the tenure of various ministers have been auctioned. “Instead, it was mentioned that the depreciation value of these furnishings was calculated, and the remainder will be collected from the ministers concerned,” he added.
“In some cases, new furnishings were not acquired. Instead, the government refurbished old furnishings and claimed bills,” he said.