As many as 15 ministers of the BJP government in Maharashtra, including nine of Cabinet rank, have collectively spent Rs two crore to refurbish their offices, an RTI query has revealed.
RTI activist Anil Galgali had sought information from the state government regarding the expenses on refurbishing the offices by the new ministers.
As the General Administration department refused to provide information on Galgali's first application in this regard, he had filed an appeal and a hearing was conducted.
The information provided during the hearing states that out of the total 28 ministers in Maharashtra, nine Cabinet and six Ministers of State (MoS) in all spent Rs two crore.
Of the Rs two crore, Rs 1,74,74,401 were spent on permanent fixtures and Rs 25,16,438 was spent on light fixtures.
The highest expenditure was incurred by Ravindra Waikar on his office, which was Rs 33,99,170, followed by Chandrakant Patil, who spent Rs 31,88,067.
Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Sawra spent Rs 20,48,271, School Education Minister Vinod Tawde (Rs 20,24,755), Minister of State Home Ranjit Patil (Rs 15,53,450) Housing Minister Prakash Mehta (Rs 14,27,906) and Irrigation Minister Girish Mahajan (Rs 13,43,127) on this.
Minister of State for Women and Children Welfare Vidya Thakur spent Rs 9,98,314, MoS Revenue Sanjay Rathod (Rs 9,96,396), Public Undertakings Minister Eknath Shinde (Rs 9,92,714), Social Welfare Minister Rajkumar Badole (Rs 4,83,864), MoS Social Welfare Dilip Kamble (Rs 4,67,864), Food and Civil Supplies Minister Girish Bapat (Rs 4,46,798), MoS Finance Deepak Kesarkar (Rs 4,00,336), Power Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule (Rs 2,19,750).
"The information on expenses incurred by the new ministers were refused by the government. This was only provided in an appeal," Galgali said adding that no administrative approvals were taken for the expenses of refurbishing the offices.
