Corruptionis cool!

Proves Delhi's Babus with rampant abuse of acs

Proves Delhi's Babus with rampant abuse of acs

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Bureaucrats, who walk the power corridors in New Delhi, are no strangers to the might of the pen they wield on the nib of which lies the destiny of several crore taxpayers.


Illegal? About 80 per cent of the total ACs in use by govt babus are
illegal, an RTI has revealed. Some of them at Shastri Bhawan

And therefore, they must have thought they were entitled to realise their hard work's worth in the form of benefits only their seniors are allowed.

So while you were sweating it out in the torrid Delhi heat with power discoms shedding load every now and then, the babus in the department of revenue, ministry of power, ministry of petroleum and ministry of human resource development were chilling out with 682 air-conditioners installed at their offices.

Unlawful
Interestingly, more than 545 out of these are running in contravention of the rules set by the Directorate of Estate, ministry of urban development. The department is responsible for the administration and management of the office buildings of various government departments.
According to the rules, officers only of the rank of joint secretary and above are entitled to get an air-conditioned office. Most of these offices are situated in the North Block, Shram Shakti Bhawan and Shastri Bhawan.
The order by the Directorate of Estates was later amended in view of the computerisation of various departments, with the officials demanding air-conditioners to maintain digital devices.

Exceptions
"The department concerned may send a proposal for provision of air conditioning which could be considered subject to availability of funds and certification by CPWD. It is however important to note that any proposal needs to be examined carefully in the context of the power shortages and the CPWD needs to ensure that adequate power supply is available before air-conditioning facility is provided in an office," the amended order by the Directorate of Estates said.
Response to right to application pleas to the department of revenue, ministry of power, ministry of petroleum and ministry of human resource development revealed that they had 243, 95, 114, and 238 air-conditioners on their premises, respectively.

The plea exposed how various government departments were rampantly abusing the provision of air-conditioning in offices belonging to junior officers.
Repeated attempts to reach CPWD officials for a response went in vain. However, sources in the central public property administrator stated that it has already been overburdened with the power demand.
Bridge the gap

"The gap between supply and demand of power is widening by the day. The power load from these department is too much," said a CPWD officer, requesting anonymity.
However, the accused ministries and departments have rejected the charges, saying air-conditioners have been installed at the offices only after the approval of concerned senior officers.

Excuse

The Other Side

No Central Public Works Department (CPWD) official came forward to comment on the alleged misuse of the air-conditioners at the offices of the various ministries that are in the buildings managed by the department. However, CPWD officials admitted that there is a huge gap between the supply and demand of power.

"Various electronic equipment like computer, scanner, fax, UPS, photo copy machine, television have been installed in each room due to which temperature in the rooms goes up considerably.

That is the reason why we have installed air-conditioners but only after getting it approved from the seniors," various departments told the RTI applicant Jagjit Singh.

Singh, however, is not amused. "The RTI plea exposed how babus are making merry on taxpayers' money."

"The ministry of power has spent more than Rs 15 crore in the year 2009-10 advertising the usage of energy efficient products but almost 80 per cent of the air-conditioners installed at the ministry does not conform to power saving star ratings," Singh added.u00a0

The Breakup

Ministry/Department	No. of ACs	Energy consumption per month (approx)
Department of Revenue (Ministry of Finance)	243	1,16,640 units
Ministry of Power	95	45,600 units
Ministry of Petroleum	114	54,720 units
Ministry of Human Resource Development	238	u00a01,14,240 units