JOIN USIn times of drought, govt plans lavish flats for MLAs
The State Legislature secretariat appears to have become synonymous with extravagance.
In the latest lavish venture, the Assembly Secretariat has decided to construct luxury ‘family flats’ for MLAs on the Legislators’ Home (LH) premises near the Vidhana Soudha.
The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs 25 crore, and they are to be constructed above the proposed multi-level car parking complex at the LH – three floors parking space (capacity for parking 90 cars) and flats on five floors.
As many as 50, two-bedroom flats will be constructed, 10 flats in each floor. Speaker K G Bopaiah approved the project plan on August 16, 2012.
According to official sources, the Secretariat has decided to call a separate tender for constructing the flats as the work on the parking complex has already begun. Each flat will be of about 1,050 sq ft with a hall, two bedrooms with attached toilets, a kitchen and a living room. The approximate cost of each flat is Rs 50 lakh, sources said.
The original plan was only for the construction of parking complex, which was estimated to cost Rs 5.11 crore. But soon after the ground-breaking ceremony was performed last year, the Secretariat came up with a plan to convert it into an apartment plus parking complex. And it was readily accepted despite there being no need.
Many senior members of the Legislative Council, including Motamma and Basavaraj Horatti, had opposed the project to construct the parking complex.
They had complained that the LH would become very congested if another big building is constructed on the premises. The LH already has four blocks.
As per the records, the Assembly Secretariat has a total 238 rooms, including four VIP rooms and five guest rooms. The Assembly has 225 legislators, including the nominated member.
The Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms takes care of all the Cabinet ministers’ accommodation. As a result, the Secretariat has to provide rooms to only about 191 MLAs.
Even if some ministers continue to occupy their rooms at LH along with the ministerial bungalow, the remaining rooms at the LH are more than sufficient for accommodating the rest of the MLAs, sources pointed out.
Sources, however, said, the Secretariat has not been able to allot rooms to about eight legislators. This was because many legislators have been allowed to occupy more than one room at a time.
In many cases, two single rooms have been merged to make one spacious room, leading to shortage of rooms.
The Secretariat has been paying Rs 10,000 per month as room rent allowance for those who have not been allotted rooms.
When contacted, Speaker Bopaiah defended the decision saying that many MLAs do not have rooms at the LH now.
The Secretariat has been paying rent allowance to those who have not got rooms at the LH. Hence, construction of the family flats has been taken up, he added.