Hudco pays for Ananth Kumar

new delhi: what do you do if you run up a cellphone bill of rs 90,000 and have a soft corner for the culinary expertise of a particular government cook? if you are urban development and poverty alleviation minister ananth kumar, you just get the government-owned housing finance firm, hudco, to foot the bills. according to documents available with the times of india, hudco had provided a nokia 8250 handset with essar connection 9811032055 to kumar in october 2001, soon after he took charge of his new portfolio.hudco also gave nokia 5110i handsets to the minister''s osd, diwakar, with airtel connection 9810536902, and joint secretary r.s. prasad, also with airtel connection 9810524506. according to the documents, the minister''s office sent the first bill of rs 52,726.30 for the period august 26, 2001, to september 09, 2001, on october 18, 2001. the last date for payment was october 16, 2001. while hudco was processing this bill, it received another one for rs 38,161.69 for the subsequent period till october 25, 2001. hudco released the total payment of rs 90,887.30 as an advance to avoid disconnection, subject to the board''s approval. at a subsequent board meeting, however, a note to clear the payment was withdrawn. in the meantime, another bill of rs 34,673 landed for the period october 26, 2001, to november 25, 2001, with the last date for payment being december 12. this prompted the board to regularise the recurring cellphone payments under a decision taken at the 276th board meeting to spend rs 1.5 crore in a year on providing equipment and subsequent maintenance to the urban development ministry for facilitating hudco work. the minister''s number has changed since. both prasad and arvind, who answered the call made on diwakar''s number and identified himself as the minister''s personal secretary, refused to answer any queries. ananth kumar also has a special affinity for the culinary expertise of kalidas, a junior chef of itdc-run hotel indraprastha. kalidas has been serving at kumar''s residence from the time he was tourism minister. his salary is now being paid by hudco. according to kalidas'' pay register, he has been paid rs 186,804.65 for the period of april 2001 to march 2002, including overtime of rs 91,547.52. he has been serving at the minister''s residence on verbal orders, a fact that has been brought to the notice of the cvc. when kumar''s portfolio was changed, he got kalidas transferred to the urban development ministry on lien. according to a letter written to the pmo by rsp''s rajya sabha mp abani roy, on both counts kumar has flouted the pm''s personal directives. in a letter to his cabinet colleagues, the pm had asked them to desist from using psus to get around guidelines on official facilities and play favourites with government employees by getting them transferred on lien without the cabinet''s nod. attempts to contact ananth kumar to elicit his comments on these two issues proved unsuccessful.