Four MPs who ducked under dinner tables to escape the fury of terrorists in Mumbai would be wishing they had also put under wraps their sojourn in a five-star hotel, courtesy public money.

In a reply to an RTI query, the Lok Sabha Secretariat clearly said that MPs travelling on official assignments should not seek five-star hotel comforts.

But that is precisely what MPs N N Krishnadas (CPI-M), Jaisingrao Gaikwad Patil (NCP), Lal Mani Prasad (BSP) and Bhupendrasinh Solanki (BJP) were enjoying on November 26, when terrorists struck the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

The lawmakers were in Mumbai as part of a 15-member Lok Sabha Committee on Subordinate Legislation to hold meetings with the top brass of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and other Public Sector Undertakings.

"Committee members or accompanying officers shall not ask for any particular hotel or five star hotel comforts etc.," the Secretariat said in its reply dated February 25 while answering the RTI application of one Bimal Khemani of Aligarh.

"Four members of our team were staying in the Taj Hotel which was booked by HPCL, which was our host. Some more members were expected to come but they could not come," the panel chairman Krishnadas said.

Krishnadas had last year recounted the "nightmarish" experience of the terror attacks and how he and others had ducked under tables to escape bullets.

The cost of board, lodging and transport of the committee during the tour will be borne by the Lok Sabha Secretariat as per the guidelines and not by the Public undertakings or organisations concerned, the RTI reply said.

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