CHANDIGARH, NOV 6: Haryana may be facing a severe resource crunch, but it has not prevented the new Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala from showering benefits on his ministers to keep them in good humour.Not only has he decided to initiate his ministerial colleagues into mobile telephony, but also doubled the ceiling on bi-monthly local calls permitted to ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader of Opposition and a few others on the telephones at their residence. A Diwali bonanza, is it?The bonanza, which was approved last week, has permitted the government to gift mobile phones to its status-conscious ministers. The beneficiaries – six Cabinet ministers and an equal number of the rank of Minister of State – are already flaunting their jazzy new toys. The government has fixed a limit of Rs 10,000 per month (total billing charges), according to the orders issued by Chief Secretary Ram S Varma.It has also doubled to 40,000 (bi-monthly) the maximum limit of local calls for the telephones installed atthe residence of Ministers, Ministers of State, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader of Opposition, Chief Parliamentary Secretary and Parliamentary Secretary with immediate effect. In effect, the expenditure incurred by the government on such telephones gets doubled with this order. However, the ceiling will not be applicable to the telephones of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister.When contacted, Verma justified the decisions, saying that these had been taken in the interest of connectivity and to promote greater interaction.The doubling of the limit, which will put tremendous burden on the state exchequer, has been ordered for the second time this year.In February, the Bansi Lal Government had doubled the ceiling on the number of local calls permitted to ministers etc to 20,0000.Interestingly, the government has not just limited its generosity to its own ministers, but has gone a step ahead by waiving off the maximum limit of 10,000 local calls imposed on the ministers and other beneficiariesfor the last 12 years from September 16, 1987 to February 4, 1999. However, the biggest beneficiaries of this relaxation will be the Chief Minister and some of his ministers. While Chautala and his Finance Minister Sampat Singh were either ministers or Leader of Opposition, most of the other ministers also enjoyed power during this period.
