Govt approves Rs 28L for fitting ACs at Secretariat

Thiruvananthapuram: While on the one hand the state machinery is pooling all its resources to raise funds for Covid-19 relief materials and vaccinations, the government has also sanctioned funds for air conditioning a small section inside the Secretariat, what could be termed extravagant and contradictory to the present-day health norms.
The general administration department has sanctioned Rs 28.30 lakh for setting up air conditioning and other electrical works in the water resources department in the Secretariat. As per the government order issued by the general administration (housekeeping) department, the funds will be used for air conditioning, setting up network connections and undertaking electrical works in the section of the water resources department, functioning on the ground floor of the Secretariat.
Though such expenditures for maintenance of the Secretariat sections are not new, what is worth mentioning is the timing of undertaking such works. The government has been urging all government and other offices and commercial establishments to avoid air conditioning as the use of ACs and working for long hours in this closed atmosphere is considered to increase the chances of Covid-19 spread. And almost all government offices are functioning by switching off their cooling systems in current times. Even those wings in the Secretariat which are centrally air conditioned, like the finance wing, are functioning by switching off the air conditioning system.
“There is nothing wrong in undertaking such works and the amount sanctioned may not be a large sum comparatively. But there is a degree of moral inappropriateness while spending for such purposes when the government is pooling funds for procuring vaccines, and cutting costs wherever possible,” a senior government official said.
Last year too, the government was criticized for unjustified and extravagant spending when the state was going through a financial crisis, during the first wave of the pandemic.