Pranab orders Krishna, Tharoor to vacate 5-star suites

NEW DELHI: Stung by a media report that sought to debunk its claims of austerity, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday ordered external affairs minister SM Krishna and his junior Shashi Tharoor to vacate their five-star suites, Times Now reported.

For over three months now, both the ministers have been staying in five-star hotels as their official accommodation is undergoing renovation.

"I have requested both the ministers to vacate hotel rooms," Pranab Mukherjee said. He was reacting after a report in an English daily.

While S M Krishna was staying at ITC Maurya on Sardar Patel Marg, Shahi Tharoor was lodged at Taj Mahal on Man Singh road.

Though they are paying their own hotel bills, neither of them has revealed the cost of their stay. The Presidential suite at the ITC Maurya where guests like George W Bush and Bill Clinton had stayed is believed to command a tariff of about 1 lakh rupees for a night.

The finance minister asked the ministers to move into their respective state bhavans. Krishna has now moved to Foreign Services Institute (FSI) guesthouse, official sources said. Tharoor is staying at an Indian Navy guesthouse.

Reacting to the finance minister's order to vacate five-star suites, minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor said that he had already vacated the hotel. "I moved out of the hotel on September 1," said Tharoor.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari justified Mukherjee's intervention in the matter, saying the ministers staying at luxury hotels when the government has announced austerity measures does not send the right signal.

Tewari, however, clarified that the government was not paying for the hotel stay of the two ministers.