Clinton's Rs 6,000-a-minute bill

new delhi: bill clinton, who checked in at maurya sheraton here at 8.40 pm on march 19 along with his white house entourage and checked out at 10.30 am on march 22, ran up a gigantic bill of rs 2 crore. that's about rs 6,000 per minute, certainly the most expensive head of state maurya, or perhaps any other hotel in india, has ever had. the bill, of course, does not include the cost of stay of white house mediapersons. a maurya source say the consolidated bill, apart from room rent and food, also includes ``overhead costs'' for providing a special infrastructure for the white house staff. ``for nearly four days nearly 40 offices of the white house were operating from the hotel,'' the source said. it's the overhead expenses that are believed to have led to such a hefty bill. some of these facilities, like additional isd lines and fax machines, had to be specially hired for the us president's visit. the cost, of course, was to be passed on to the guest. the white house staff had categorically told the hotel that they should be billed for every facility used by them. nearly two dozen heads of state and other vips have stayed at maurya so far. but bill clinton's bill is probably the highest. the source refused to give a breakup of the cost. apparently, only a consolidated bill has been prepared. but room rent and food are said to have accounted for the bulk of the expenditure. the hotel offers special concessional rates to embassies which are described as ``regular clients''. of the 500-odd rooms in the hotel, nearly 450 had been reserved for the white house for about a week. the rest were meant for the ``protective pool media'' covering the visit. the bill for this pool is separate. part of the bill, sources added, will be footed by the us embassy here, and some bills were directly settled by the white house staff.