What costs Rs 1.6 crore, but does no work at all?

New Delhi: Natwar Singh on Monday was stripped off his portfolio but retained his place in the Cabinet albeit under a cloud.

With Natwar becoming minister without portfolio, the prime minister has taken charge of the External Affairs Ministry.

Our correspondent found out how much money it takes to keep a minister in the Cabinet without a portfolio.

The monthly salary of an MP is Rs 12,000, the expense for Constitution per month is Rs 10,000 and the office expenditure per month is Rs 14,000.

Apart from this, ministers get a travelling concession of Rs 8 per kilometre.

The ministers also get perks like daily allowance (Rs 500) during parliament meets, no charge for first class AC train travel all over India and 40 free Business class air trips for two annually.

They also get up to 50,000 units of electricity and 1,70,000 local calls free of charge.

The total expense for a Member of Parliament is Rs 32 lakh annually and Rs 1.6 crores for five years.

This adds up to over Rs 854 crores for five years.

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Not the first case in history

Over the years India has witnessed many ministers in the Cabinet without a portfolio but these cases have been rare.

However unlike Natwar Singh, whose portfolio was taken away from him, all of these ministers had either joined the Cabinet without portfolios in the first place or had been asked to surrender their portfolio due to failing health.

In 1964, when Jawaharlal Nehru fell ill, Lal Bahadur Shastri was brought back to the Cabinet as a minister without a portfolio.

The late V K Krishna Menon joined the Nehru Cabinet as Minister without portfolio but was later awarded the Defence Ministry.

Dinesh Singh and Murasoli Maran both of whom spent the last few years of their lives battling terminal illness were ministers without portfolios.

K Chandrashekhara Rao had a six-month ministry without a portfolio because of coalition compulsions.

The TRS leader was given Shipping when the UPA was sworn in but gave it up when the Congress realised it had also promised it to the DMK.

More recently in the year 2003 Mamata Banerjee had re-entered the NDA government as minister without portfolio. The Railway Ministry, which she had surrendered on resigning in 2001, had been given to Nitish Kumar of JD(U).