Minister forcibly takes hotel rooms in Patna

By K. Balchand

PATNA, JUNE 29. A piquant situation has arisen here with a Bihar Minister, forcibly occupying rooms in a State Government hotel and the official concerned slapping a criminal case against the Minister's supporters.

Mr. Chandrashekhar Dubey, who got his portfolio changed to Labour and Employment, has created the storm by forcibly breaking open the doors of three AC rooms of Kautilya Vihar, a hotel run by the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation. The rooms are now occupied by his supporters and staff.

Mr. Dubey, belonging to the Congress(I), has been staying in the hotel since March 26 after his election to the Bihar Assembly. He had taken up two rooms then, but on Monday last his supporters took illegal possession of three more rooms.

The Managing Director of BSTDC, Mr. Atuld Prasad, ordered the filing of criminal cases against two of the Minister's supporters. Mr. Prasad maintained that the necessary process of booking the rooms either in advance or directly from the reception had not been followed.

Mr. Dubey, however, justified the occupation of additional rooms by him saying that he was finding it difficult to manage his affairs in just two rooms. He took the stand that being a Minister and part of the Government he had not committed any wrong by occupying what belonged to the Government.

The Minister maintained that he would have no hesitation vacating the rooms as and when he was given possession of a Government quarter. The bungalow allotted to him is now occupied by an independent member, Mr. Jagdish Sharma.

There lies the crux of the matter. The same house has been allotted to two persons. The problem cropped up for the reported lack of coordination between the Assembly and the State Government.

While Ministers are allotted houses by the Housing Department of the State Government, legislators are allotted houses by the Speaker. While the Government allotted 26, Bailey Road to Mr. Dubey, the Speaker reallotted the house under the Central pool to Mr. Sharma.

This problem is not confined to Mr. Sharma and Mr. Dubey. There are no less than 18 Ministers who are yet to get houses. Altogether, 30 legislators are still running from pillar to post to have their allotted houses vacated by ``illegal'' occupants. As a matter of fact, several of these Ministers have been approaching the district administration to come to their rescue. The matter is in the Patna High Court for arbitration.

As regards Mr. Dubey, official sources said that he was yet to make payment for the rooms he had availed of so far totaling about Rs. 1.5 lakhs. They said they had no written authorisation from either the Government or the Assembly to allow him these rooms.

The rental of each room occupied Mr. Dubey is said to be Rs. 535 a day, which works out to a total of Rs. 2,665 a day. The staff had indeed snapped power and water supply to the illegally occupied rooms but the same were restored following the intervention of the Tourism Secretary.

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