Aiyar in Delhi on Wednesday

New Delhi, April 23: Khublal Kurre, a district council member from Chhattisgarh, is ready to pack his bags and leave.

Kurre had travelled along with 250 delegates from his state to take part in the three-day national convention of panchayats that began in the capital yesterday.

Barely a day into the meet, most of the 10,000-odd delegates from across the country would rather be back home. Never mind the Rs 50 crore panchayati raj minister Mani Shankar Aiyar spent on organising the convention.

“Some 300 people had to share one camp. There were fans in the camps, but not enough to beat the heat. The place is very dirty and the toilets are filthy,” said Satish Paiguinkar, part of the 37-member Goa team that would have left today had they got tickets.

Aiyar, who has lost both the petroleum and sports ministry and is now concentrating all his energies on panchayati raj, had initially proposed Rs 100 crore as the budget for the convention. Turned down twice by the cabinet, he got it cleared this time by cutting the cost to half.

“It is true that my proposal was rejected twice by the cabinet since they had some reservations as we were planning to invite about 2.2 lakh sarpanchs from all over the country to the convention in December. We could get it cleared this time because the numbers are a lot less,” Aiyar said, adding that the money had been put to good use.

Nine hundred air-conditioners have been installed in the convention hall in the spacious Burari Ground in north-west Delhi. Sources say the ACs cost the government Rs 3 crore.

The ACs worked fine but, unfortunately for Aiyar, he was greeted with unending rows of empty chairs lining the hall on just the second day. Of the 10,000 delegates, only about a thousand were present.

The empty chairs (with milk-white covers) came at Rs 15 each.

Crores were spent on temporary arrangements to house the delegates — 36 large hangars with 288 beds each. These, too, lay vacant.

“How do they expect us to stay in such conditions? Women have no privacy and we have to travel a kilometre to relieve ourselves. There is no water in the toilets,” said Soma Deb, district panchayat officer from west Tripura. “We have moved to Tripura House and are travelling more than an hour every day at our own expense to reach the venue.”

But, of course, the bill will be sent to the government.

With a contingent of 30 delegates, the Tripura team, sources said, can claim reimbursements of Rs 4.5 lakh. “What a waste of money,” said Gautam Sarkar, a Tripura delegate. “Instead of wasting so much money, the government should just have distributed them among the panchayats and helped them get some work done in their area,” he added.