Mumbai: Did the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Office order 18,591 cups of tea every day during the year 2017-18? This is a question one would ask after looking at the reply given to an RTI query.
According to Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Sanjay Nirupam, the Chief Minister’s office has spent around 3.4 crores on tea consumption in the year 2017-18. He also termed this as a ‘tea scam’. The RTI reply which Nirupam is referring to shows a steady increase in the amount of money being spent on the consumption of tea and snacks at the Chief Minister's office from 2015-2016 to 2017-2018. The amount spent on tea in the year 2015-16 was Rs 57, 99,150, whereas it rose to Rs 3, 34, 64,904 in 2017-18 which is a staggering increase of 577 percent.
Sanjay Nirupam said “Tea worth 3.34 crores has been consumed by the Chief Minister’s office, if we go by this number than 18,591 people have consumed tea at the Chief Minister’s Office in one day. Do so many people visit the Chief Minister’s office in a Day?” Nirupam also alleged that inflated bills of tea have been produced and demanded an investigation. “Inflated bills of tea have been produced, this is a huge tea scam that has taken place in Chief Minister’s office. This should be investigated,” he said.
The Chief Minister’s office has issued a clarification on the allegation made by Sanjay Nirupam. The statement issued by Chief Minister’s office stated that the amount mentioned in the RTI reply is not just for tea, but for several other expenses. The statement released by the CMO states, “The amount stated includes various other expenses such as snacks and lunch during meetings, expenses of flowers, mementos, gifts given during felicitation and hosting of guests. The expenses are not only of Chief Minister’s office, but also of his office at the Mantralay, Sahyadri Guest House, Varsha residence, Ramgiri residence at Nagpur and Hyderabad House.”
Chief Minister’s office has also said that the expense has not increased by 577 percent as the bills submitted in a year also includes bills of previous year which were not submitted on time. The statement further stated that the number of meetings have also increased in the recent years increasing the amount of expenses “The number of meeting have increased recently. Several national and international delegations, representatives from various organisations visit the Chief Minister’s office and also Mantralay. Even the cost of products has increased due to which the expenses of hosting the guests have increased.”
This allegation of Nirupam has come a week after BJP leader and former Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse alleged a scam in the way contract to kill over 3 lakh rats in Mantralaya was executed in mere seven days.
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