Shatabdi chair car and airline economy seats may be the new symbols of UPA “austerity” but its Cabinet ministers want nothing but the finest — and expensive — fittings in their new offices: from Spanish wall tiles in their chambers to Italian porcelain in toilets.

The requests from Ministers flooding the Director General of Works (DGW) of the Central Public Works Department are telling — one Minister has insisted on a private architect being kept “in the loop” for finalising his new office design, a Minister of State has demanded a new toilet “on the back side of her seat” in keeping with Vaastu. Records with The Indian Express show these renovation expenses run into lakhs. Respective ministries are expected to dig into their “contingency funds” to pick up the tab — in advance — while the work is done by the CPWD.

Consider these cases:

Udyog Bhawan office of Vilasrao Deshmukh, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

Estimate: Rs 17.54 lakh.

On July 8, a CPWD Assistant Engineer wrote to the Ministry that after the CPWD prepared architectural designs, the PS to the Minister asked for an architect from BHEL to provide “inputs” as well. In a subsequent report, the CPWD noted that despite handing two sets of drawings, “the Ministry however got another prepared by a private architect and approved them”. The following works were listed with a one-month deadline:

• Engineered wood flooring, wall paneling and veneering

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