Minister & deputy run up Rs 30-lakh taxi bill, 5-star hotel charge, get PSU to pay

And then days after The Sunday Express confronts the two ministers to explain their position, guess what happens:

• First, Maharia claims that rules allow him to do this—when they clearly don’t—and days later, he says he is ‘‘willing to pay.’’

• The Executive Director (Finance), among the first to raise questions on the payment—after the FCI had already coughed up Rs 21.05 lakh—is transferred out.

On December 16, last year, he put down in writing his objection to an FCI proposal that an ‘‘additional budget’’ of Rs 20 lakh be raised to pay these bills.

‘‘Unless the position is clarified,’’ he wrote, ‘‘I am afraid, we may not be in a position to either concur for such expenditure or even think of providing budget to cover such expenditure.’’

A month earlier, his boss, FCI managing director V K Malhotra, had already written to the Ministry asking for instructions on what to do with these bills so that ‘‘it (this expenditure) does not find mention in the CAG observations during the course of the audit of annual accounts.’’

For, the CAG would have had a lot to observe.

Official records available with The Sunday Express show:

• Between April and December 2003, the FCI’s taxi bill alone came to Rs 29.43 lakh—almost 90% of this, Rs 26.89 lakh, incurred only on the offices of the two ministers. Break-up: Maharia’s office, Rs 18.60 lakh; Yadav’s Rs. 8.29 lakh.

• Incidentally, this amount is almost double the taxi bill for the previous year and almost 19 times the bill for 2001-02!

Not just taxis. Maharia, the Minister of State for Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, has gone a step further.

Take the letter his OSD Guthi Jambunath wrote to FCI’s Zonal Manager, Mumbai, a day before his ‘‘official visit’’ to inspect FCI depots: ‘‘He (Minister) is being accompanied by his wife, four adult children and the undersigned…Hence, please arrange accommodation (three suites and a room) at the Hotel Taj Mahal, Mumbai from 15-17 June 2003, transportation for the entourage during the visit and necessary arrangements for visiting depots and warehouses.’’

Promptly, the zonal office booked Maharia and his entourage in Hotel Taj President. Luxury cars were also arranged. A little over Rs 1.17 lakh was coughed up by FCI’s Mumbai office to square up the bills (Hotel: Rs 71,864; Taxi: Rs. 45,724) for a three-day visit.

But FCI headquarters rejected its Mumbai office’s claim for settlement of this bill saying arrangements could not be done only on the basis of the OSD’s letter.

Speaking to The Sunday Express from Sikar (Rajasthan), his constituency, on March 13, Maharia first said there was a rule allowing ministers to take their families on official trips six times a year (see box) and that the government would bear the cost of travel and stay.

What he, perhaps, was referring to was an amendment to The Salaries and Allowances of Ministers Act, 1952, on September 17, 2001.

This entitles a minister to undertake 12 return journeys within India for himself and his family, for which he can claim travelling allowance due to him as a minister. But the rule does not cover expenses incurred during the stay, be it hotel bills or taxi charges.

And the claim has to go to the Ministry—certainly not the PSU.