A year on, Deshmukh yet to move into official home

NEW DELHI: Foreign minister S M Krishna and his former deputy Shashi Tharoor may have had to vacate their hotel digs post-haste after a furore over delay in moving into official accommodation allotted to them but more than a year after UPA-2 took office, not all central ministers seem to have learnt the lesson.Krishna and Tharoor had to check out after being publicly ticked off by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee but months after the episode, minister for heavy industries and public sector enterprises Vilasrao Deshmukh is yet to move into an official bungalow. He has been allotted the spacious 14 Akbar Road, previously occupied by Rajya Sabha MP Mani Shankar Aiyar.Apparently unhappy with the bungalow'sfacilities, Deshmukh is waiting for the house to be upgraded to his standards.It is understood that works have been privately commissioned as rules do notpermit a renovation if the last such exercise was carried out within 10 years.Aiyar had renovated the bungalow and so CPWD cannot sanction freshwork.As a central minister, Deshmukh needs a place to stay in Delhi.Now that hotels attract bad press, the former Maharashtra chief minister hasfallen back on the time-tested option of using public sector units and isputting up at the BHEL guesthouse at Asiad Village. The "use" of PSUs to furnishor equip ministerial residences has been quite rampant in the past and the BHELguesthouse's location seems to suit the minister.When TOI spoke to apersonal staff of the minister and asked why Deshmukh had not moved into anofficial bungalow even a year after taking oath, the officer said, "The ministerwas allotted the house after some time. Renovations have only started 2-3 weeksago and we will move into the allotted bungalow as soon as it is ready." Thestaff did not want to be on record and TOI's request to speak with Deshmukh overSaturday and Sunday did not yield a response.Sources in Deshmukh'soffice claimed that it took a while for the minister to be allotted a residenceand Aiyar took his time in vacating the bungalow. There was no response to thenature of renovations or the need for the works. Once the renovation is over,CPWD is expected to do the painting and small repairs.Some otherministers have also taken a while to move into official residences. One of them,Mallikarjun Kharge, stayed at the state guesthouse Karnataka Bhavan.