CPWD spends Rs51 lakh in Sonia Gandhi's house as electricity expense

The money that you would pay for buying 1BHK house in a metro, is the money spent to fit and maintain electrical fittings at the house of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Electrical fittings, including halogen lights, ACs, etc at the 10 Janpath residence cost Central Public Works Department (CPWD) as much as Rs51 lakh during the last financial year.

In an RTI reply, the CPWD has revealed that for fiscal year 2013-14, the agency has spent Rs 51,43,318 for maintaining the electrical fittings at 10 Janpath, the official residence of UPA chairperson. For the same house, the agency had spent Rs7,82,968 in the year 2012-13 and Rs 2,65,681 for the year 2011-12.

"The house has halogen lights, which are controlled by regulators. These regulators are expensive and do not last for very long. They need to be changed regularly," said a senior official of the CPWD. The regulators are priced between Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 each and the house has nine such regulators.

CPWD has also installed three air conditioners in the house. Besides the house also has other ACs put up by the occupant. "We have to ensure regular maintenance of these ACs as well," said the office.

Besides 10 Janpath, to maintain electric fittings at the house of Rahul Gandhi at 12Tughlak Road, CPWD had spent Rs3,80,320 in fiscal year 2013-14 and Rs 1,51,934 for the year 2012-13.

The CPWD has spent a huge some of Rs18,98,231, this fiscal year to maintain the electric fittings in ailing former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's house.

For government bungalow 35 Lodhi Estate in possession of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the capacity of being a daughter of former Prime Minister a sum of Rs3,80,320 has been spent for maintaining the electrical fittings, the amount almost double than what the CPWD had spent last year.

"Last year some electrotonic items were replaced with new ones, so the cost has increased," explained the officer.

The CPWD employees deployed for these bungalows say that while the Gandhi's want to keep things simple and are not too demanding, but their close associates are. "Rahul Gandhi runs an office from home and more than him, it is his party workers who create a fuss about what they want in the house," said the officer.

The officer also informed that since these houses are very old, they need constant repair and maintenance. Every time a civil work is done, some electric fitting gets damaged and needs to be repaired. Switch boards, lamps, lights and wiring of the house gets replaced almost every year.

To maintain the electric equipments in these houses, department has deployed three staff round the clock in these houses and a major chuck of budget goes into paying salaries. "These are VVIP houses and at no time can we afford a delay in service delivery. Three people are deployed in these houses round the clock to ensure that no crises occur," added the officer.