Last week, Cabinet ministers reluctantly agreed to be austere in their daily dealings after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made it clear they all had to lead by example. But ministers have flooded the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) with all kinds of requests for renovation of workplaces, the strangest and most recent being the demand for the construction of a new toilet behind a minister’s seat in the work chamber.

Minister of State (Textiles) Panabaka Lakshmi’s staff approved drawings for office upgradation — seeking a new toilet “on the back side of her seat” plus silk carpets, new cabinets, new floor finishing — which reached the CPWD on August 31. The suggested toilet location, a CPWD official pointed out, was in keeping with Vaastu. Panabaka Lakshmi is a Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh.

Three days later, the CPWD said a polite no, informing her Ministry that construction of a general toilet in the chamber would be “un-engineered work” and would need clearance from the “competent authority”.

“In the opinion of this office, some problems may crop up after executing the work to the above drawing as the expansion joint of the building is coming over the sofa and counter table and there is possibility of dropping of insects... seepage and leakage,” the CPWD pointed out.

• Official notings reveal that one of the most expensive estimates — of Rs 25.63 lakh — was prepared for the Udyog Bhawan office of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, but this was later scaled down.

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