IAS officer’s house facelift: UT halves spending to ₹12L

CHANDIGARH: After facing flak for its plan to spend ₹26 lakh on the renovation of a government house in Sector 16, the UT administration has revised the planned expenditure to ₹12 lakh.

HT on August 11 reported that the UT engineering department floated a tender of ₹26 lakh for repair and renovations of a house recently allocated to a senior Punjab-cadre IAS officer of the principal secretary rank.

While around ₹12 lakh were allocated for repairs, ₹14 lakh were to be spend on additions. “Now, the administration has decided that keeping in view of austerity measures, the plan for additional constructions should be scrapped. The department will undertake only repair works,” said an official of the engineering department.

The administration to compensate its revenue loss in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic had announced a slew of measures. Now, only projects approved by the administration as priority can be taken up. The lockdown cost UT ₹342 crore in forgone tax collections.