New Delhi: Trinamool Congress, which has
asked its leader and Union Minister Sultan Ahmed to pay up a
bill worth Rs 37 lakh for staying in the plush Ashok Hotel
here, on Wednesday blamed Tourism Ministry officials for misguiding
the first-time MP.
The party also said that it suspected the CPI(M), Left
Front partners and "even some friendly parties" of being
behind "efforts to defame" it.
Trinamool's parliamentary party, headed by Railway
Minister Mamata Banerjee, met late last night and asked Ahmed
to "rectify his mistakes".
It also asked Ahmed to vacate the five-star hotel
accommodation with immediate effect, the party's chief whip in
Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay said here.
Ahmed, the Minister of State for Tourism, has been
staying in the Ashok for the past six months in the absence of
a government house.
"It was brought to our knowledge that our party MoS,
Sultan Ahmed, has run up a bill of Rs 37 lakh at the Ashok
Hotel," he said, adding that Ahmed "has been asked to
pay for all the extra expenses from his own pocket."
Bandopadhyay said, "We doubt that the CPI(M), the Left
Front partners and even some friendly parties are behind this
effort to defame our party".
He claimed Ahmed was a "new member and was asked by
Tourism Ministry officials to move into Ashok Hotel. He was
obviously misguided".
Bandopadhyay said his party "always favoured
transparency" in public life and claimed "prompt action" was
taken in this case as soon as the reports came in.
When contacted, Ahmed said that before becoming a
minister he had stayed in a room at ITDC-owned Samrat Hotel
for about a month. After becoming a minister he moved into the
Ashok and occupied two rooms.
Though he was allotted a ministerial bungalow, he
could not move in as the CPWD could not ready it, Ahmed said.
He said the party has asked him to pay from his pocket
the difference between the room rent at Samrat Hotel and that
in Ashok Hotel and added that he was yet to receive the hotel
bills.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 02, 2009, 12:13