PWD minister Sajjan Singh Verma spoke in the Madhya Pradesh assembly.
A cash crunch may have put 20,000 critical child-care centres at risk of shutting down in Madhya Pradesh but when it comes to the facelift and renovation of the ministers' bungalows, government funds are flowing freely.
The Anganwadi centres in Madhya Pradesh, mandated to take care of and support children, are on the verge of shutting down as the state is yet to release Rs 40 crore. But the state government has spent over Rs 3.68 crore on the repair of the official bungalows of its ministers in Bhopal.
The fact was revealed by the Public Works Department or PWD minister Sajjan Singh Verma in response to former Madhya Pradesh minister and senior BJP legislator Narottam Mishra's question over the expenditure on the renovation of bungalows allotted to cabinet ministers of the new Congress government in the assembly on Thursday.
The highest expenditure of over Rs 45 lakh was on the reconstruction, repair and facelift of Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot's official bungalow in the upscale Char Imli locality.
Next, in the list was Sajjan Singh Verma himself. A sum of over Rs 42.68 lakh was spent on the PWD minister's bungalow located.
At No. 3, was Chief Minister Kamal Nath, whose two bungalows in the Civil Lines area were renovated with over Rs 33.8 lakh.
"On the one hand, the government says that previous government left the treasury empty, but on the other hand, it spends crores of rupees to get ministers' bungalows spruced up and renovated," Narottam Mishra said.