The PLANNING and COMMISSIONing of the Golden Toilet

Jun 7
NabanitaDhar

Well well if it isn’t the infamous planning commission back in news again. Before we dissect the recent ‘achievement’ by the institution of elite Economists; let us look around us for a while or perhaps close our eyes and think about the condition of our country for a bit.
Slums growing in numbers; homeless children running about in the streets polishing shoes or selling papers; infants born to the poor and needy dying for deficiency of nutrition; lack of infrastructure in thousands of villages; droughts and famine; unemployment; shoddy living conditions of the poor; their children dropping out of school out of compulsion; farmer suicides; realty rates overshooting limits; unaffordable food, housing and clothing for many. Too familiar isn’t it? Well these are only a few in the huge ‘To-Renovate’ List that the Government ought to or rather must maintain in order to steer our country towards a brighter future.
When the government’s top brass is ‘preaching austerity’ to the nation, a body of the Government itself goes ahead and spends absurd sum of money for renovation of two toilets in its headquarters. Yes the Planning Commission of India has managed to do it again; managed to cross the limits of being preposterous and nonsensical.
So Cartoons, Petrol and now Toilets- I didn’t know that this day would come. Have you seen the public toilets available for the common man; even in emergencies you would rather humiliate yourself than enter those. Yes that is the condition around India. Except for a few NGOs and private organizations the government has actually lent a deaf ear to the sanitary woes of its citizens.
Think back to the last time you visited a railway station and you had to run to the toilet. I am sure you would have cursed your bowel and bladder movements for forcing you to endure that torture. How many such toilets could the Government have renovated by spending Rs 35 lakhs? I am damn sure it would be much more than two.
The Commission had fixed the poverty line at Rs.28 last year. Yes, ludicrous isn’t it. There is more; the Deputy Chairman undertakes innumerable foreign trips running up bizarre per day expenditures; again of the tax payers’ money and here we have him defending the spend on upgrading toilets at its headquarters at a humungous sum of Rs.35 lakhs. What have they use gold fittings or diamonds perhaps?
Rs. 35 lakhs is such a huge amount. One can buy a 3 bed room flat with 3 spacious bathrooms with that amount of money and they just flush it down two toilets! Is there no value for money? We pay taxes so that the government can use the money for our development not for the interiors of their toilets for heaven’s sake!
Mr Alhuwalia’s argument is that the two toilets can serve 10 persons simultaneously so the spend is justified. He says further that the toilets need to be in good condition as foreign dignitaries and officials visit it often and have complained too. Fair enough, nobody would question the intent if the spend was plausible. But isn’t the sum of Rs. 35 lakhs for merely 10 people actually going way too overboard in terms of spending?
Well I do not even want to try and fathom the reason and the cause of such step taken by this department. Going by the track record of our government, this actually doesn’t come as a surprise. Fact is Rs 35 lakhs may only be the figure in papers while much more must have been slipped to various pockets at different levels when ‘no one was looking’. Yes our hard earned money that we pay as taxes is actually being flushed down the drain and there is nothing we can do about it! Wonder what else happens in the background and we common people end up facing the heat for a degrading economy. Well I guess it goes without saying Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys ~ P.J. O’Rourke.

70 thoughts on “The PLANNING and COMMISSIONing of the Golden Toilet”

  1. Very relevant post… I read somewhere that the amount of money swallowed up by the government would be enough to ensure decent living conditions for most of our population!

  4. Your incisive analysis is excellent. But the other side of the story is also relevant. Planning Commission, being a very important institution with more than 2000 meetings in an year requires enough toilets for the officers. It is not one toilet. Cost is for 20 units within the toilet area. And the toilets are renovated after a gap of 50 years. Rs 35 lakhs is not a great amount to make a decent restroom. One should avoid comparing with a bus stand or home toilet!

  5. Second post i am reading on this issue .. I would like ot visit this bathroom jsut to see where and how did they spend so much money ..

    ludicrous it is the way things are in our nation
    public money meant for public is wasted like anything
    Bikram's

  9. Well I beg to differ Samaresh; it isn't ok when it's from a planning commission that sets the poverty line to Rs.28 or 32…

  11. Well I beg to differ; it isn't ok when it's from a planning commission that sets the poverty line to Rs.28 or 32…and when the government is preaching austerity measures..

  15. I am planning something too but more of a feminist view.! Very good take on the corruption vows in our great country.!

  17. And the absurd part is that they were defending it to the Tee. Just goes to show how insensitive these folks are.

  20. Never before in the history of the nation there was a wider gap between the rulers and gthe ruled. "Let them eat cake" appears to be Montek Antoinette's way of feeding the hungry.

  26. Talk about toilets….When I visited Gandhiji's samadhi in Delhi and the beautiful Taj Mahal in Agra, I was horrified at the state of maintenance of the public toilets there…Trust me, it cant get worse….If you had to spend money rennovating toilets then there are a whole list of toilets in the country at such important revenue-bringing tourist locations…Also I remember reading during Commonwealth Games that one thing mainly lacking in India is the presence of public toilets…But I really dont know what they can do for 35 lak in just two toilets? Toilet paper stand in Gold? 🙂

  27. Very rightly said Jaish…and yeah I think the paper stand is definitely of gold..what else could explain the expenditure !!

  29. The recent clarification is that the money was spent on two toilet blocks so that ten people can simultaneously use the facilities rather than two toilets. Whatever may be the justification and expenses involved, the fact is that we need safe toilet facilities around the country. On monday when I landed up in Mumbai airport, the toilet was stinking. There are more TVs and Cellphones in this country than safety latrines. I hope the planning commission can atleast now spend some more energy on improving the sanitary conditions in this country.

  31. Unfortunately, on the name of public interest the govt. has been eating all the money…We don't know how many scams will be unearthed in the comings days. The state of politics in India is a Pity !!

  33. Its a case of not getting their priorities right. Sometimes I just wonder, "how do these people sleep at night".

  34. Maybe you should e-mail this piece to Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia and see how he responds! 🙂

  42. foreign dignitaries should be subjected to clean washrooms so that they get a fair idea of India's hospitality. And these are the very people who say that our country is poor. The government has to decide what is more important: its own people or a handful of dignitaries?
    And the planning commission should be scrapped!!!!
    they fail to understand the very needs of people. And What planning?

  43. foreign dignitaries should be subjected to clean washrooms so that they get a fair idea of India's hospitality. And these are the very people who say that our country is poor. The government has to decide what is more important: its own people or a handful of dignitaries?
    And the planning commission should be scrapped!!!!
    they fail to understand the very needs of people. And What planning?

  44. Rs 35 lakh is inadequate for a toilet for the Planning commission. The way to dump the valuable plannings for the development of the poor must be in the crores. The deficiency must be made up by raising a surcharge on essential commdities.

  46. well i certainly don't get much into political stuff but after the reponse you've got ………nice stuff get readers emotions to your writings till your fingers get exhausted….oh m inspired

  48. Brunei Sultan's brother had golden toilet seat and even golden toilet brush. Any way, decorating the toilet in such a costly manner is as ridiculous as burning sandal wood to make a glass of tea.

  49. Well, you know they did try to bring in a Smart card system.For toilets. Appreciate their ingenuity. 😛

    And besides , 35 is a high figure but not too high I think. After all , have you never complained of a stinky toilet? Toilets are worth spending on. Foreign trips?? Not so much. IMO.

  55. they don't see beyond Rs 28 for declaring the poverty line..by that standards 35 lakhs for two units of stinky toilets is way too much!

  56. Moreover, they even installed CC Cameras in the toilet for security. The CC Camera operator can record the video while a staff-woman takes bath in unawareness about CC Camera. The CC Camera operator can even blackmail the woman.

  57. You have summed it up very very neatly…nowadays a few migrant laborers' families have pitched up in front of our home,they have to get up before dawn & look for nooks & corners to ease themselves…i wonder how they manage if they are down with diarrhoea or when women need to -you know what?

  58. If you travel from Delhi towards Agra, travel in AC coach only. If you travel in sleeper, you have to close the nose to prevent foul smell near Mathura because poor people often excrete shit near tracks in Mathura. You even need to cover your noses with hand kerchiefs while Konark express crosses Vijayawada and Khammam in morning hours. Indian towns generate much of filth but Indian bureaucreats live in 100% clean castles where even toilets are 100% clean.

  59. Yes the condition is pathetic Indu and sad part is those in authority are least bothered! They are more concerned with pepping up their own home, in this case office toilet !

  60. And sad part is if they have the will they can have both their offices and the Indian Towns clean but they choose not to do it!

  63. so the foreign dignitaries visit the country for shi**** and this is what Ahluwalia ji has proved. They and Foreigner Dignitaries, both would sh*** together now, in 35 lakhs!!!!! 🙂

  68. Have you ever traveled in Chattisgarh? In Chattisgarh, only Ambikapur railway station has clean toilets. It's because Ambikapur station is a new station opened after extension of Boridand-Bishrampur line to Ambikapur. Toilets in other stations of Chattisgarh look so filthy that one cannot even open the door of the toilet if he is aware about the filth.

  70. Future of India will be same. Heaven for rich and hell for poor and trisanku swargam (neither heaven nor hell) for middle class.

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