How much do you set aside in your annual budget for electrical repairs and maintenance?

Rs5k? Rs10k? Even if you stretched your imagination and quoted the maximum, you won’t arrive at the figure the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) divulged in reply to our RTI (right to information) application on the money spent on electrical repairs and maintenance at the VVIP bungalows in the capital.

The department spends anywhere between a whopping Rs1 lakh to Rs10 lakh for the purpose.

This amount is in addition to what the CPWD spends on the power consumed by these VVIPS, and it all comes from your, the taxpayer’s, pocket!

The department was initially not forthcoming and we now know why.

Even when they finally revealed the expense, they restricted the information to the last three years, saying before that the “bungalows were being maintained by ED-II, CPWD”.

So, here it is. In the 2007-08 fiscal, the government spent Rs9.61 lakh on electrical repairs and maintenance at 12, Tughlak Lane, the official residence of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. And this amount does not include his power bill, but was spent only on maintenance and repair of electrical fittings and to pay wages to workers. The CPWD also spent Rs5.60 lakh for civil works in 2004-05 on the same house.

The CPWD electrical expenditure sheet is a story of sharp and surprising contrasts. In the financial year 2005-06, the electrical expenditure on Rahul’s residence was Rs2.94 lakh, while in the next financial year, it more than tripled to Rs8.84 lakh, a steep rise of Rs5.90 lakh.

His mother and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka together incurred a cost of nearly Rs12 lakh in 2007-08 on electrical maintenance at their 10 Janpath and 35 Lodhi Estate homes. In 2006-07, the cost was Rs10.36 lakh, a big jump from 2005-06 when the CPWD spent Rs6.43 lakh on the two bungalows.

The department spent on an average Rs1.55 lakh each on the government bungalows of former prime ministers IK Gujral, HD Deve Gowda, the late Chandra Shekhar and VP Singh in 2005-06. In sharp contrast, it spent average Rs3.21 lakh each on the official bungalows of Sonia and Priyanka.

Similarly, in 2007-08, while the government spent average Rs1.99 lakh on the four ex-PMs’ residences, Rs5.98 lakh each was spent on the residences of Sonia and Priyanka.

Last month, a DNA investigation had revealed that the CPWD spent over half-a-crore (Rs55.57 lakh) on civil works at prime minister Manmohan Singh’s 7, Race Course Road, abode in 2006-07. In 2004-05 and 2006-07, civil works at former PM AB Vajpayee’s residence cost nearly Rs45 lakh,while Rs47 lakh was spent on the houses of the Gandhis in the same period.

The CPWD spends over Rs330 crore a year in the Lutyens’ zone for maintaining government bungalows and flats.