Bihar Niwas in New Delhi. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

Patna, June 8: Eat now, pay later.

Bihar’s lawmakers, both in Parliament as well as in the state, have made a habit of eating well and forgetting to foot the bill.

The person at the receiving end of the leaders’ selective amnesia is Chandrashekhar Bimal, who runs the canteen at Bihar Niwas in New Delhi.

The 42-year-old from Muzaffarpur, who has been managing the eatery at the VIP address for the past five years, has not been able to pay the salary to his employees for the last two months.

“The reason is that pending bills to the tune of about Rs 3.5 lakh — the money owned by MPs and politicians for the food they ate from my canteen during their stay. In Bihar, people go to netas (politicians) for solution of their problems. But I am facing problem due to netas,” said Bimal.

To top it all, he pointed out, he had to pay Rs 2,000 per month as rent to the state government for allowing him to run the canteen.

The list of defaulters in Bimal’s book includes dissident Janata Dal (United) MP Mangani Lal Mandal, BJP MP from Araria Pradeep Singh, former MP Pappu Yadav, who is currently in jail for murder, JD(U) MP from Sitamarhi Arjun Rai, Lok Janshakti Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sabir Ali and former MLA Dadan Yadav. The list also includes a former official of Bihar Niwas, Karu Ram.

“Whenever MPs get elected to Delhi, most of them stay in Bihar Niwas until they are allotted accommodation. Many of them leave without paying my bills,” rued Bimal. That too, he said, in spite of charging only Rs 40 for a vegetarian thali in an expensive place like Delhi.

Most of the bills have been pending for over a year, Bimal added, saying that persistent reminders had fallen on deaf ears.

The MPs though sang a different tune. “It could be that some of my supporters have stayed and some bills are pending. I stayed there for six months after being elected. At the time of leaving I was told that there were no pending bills against me. I will find out if there is any pending bill against my name. A sum of Rs 14,000 or Rs 15,000 is not an issue. The man should have come to me,” said BJP MP Pradeep Singh, stressing that he stays in Delhi only when the Parliament session is on. “I have not gone to Bihar Niwas after I got accommodation,” he added.

Bimal confirmed that he got his dues from Pradeep Singh soon after The Telegraph spoke to the MP today.

Bihar Niwas is a popular haunt of politicians, bureaucrats and even outsiders who are touring Delhi as it is centrally located in Chanakyapuri.

“Where else in Delhi can MLAs and MPs find an air-conditioned room, with an LCD TV and room service, for just Rs 54 per day? For that amount, you won’t even get water for daily use in Delhi. A room of that standard in Delhi would cost at least Rs 4,000 per day,” said JD(U) legislator Munna Shahi.

Shahi, who stayed in Bihar Niwas from June 4-6, said maintenance was poor. “The taps in the bathroom leak,” he said, insisting that MPs and MLAs should be asked to pay more so that the place can be kept properly.

The charge for “non-MLAs or ex-MLAs” is Rs 254 per day, still very cheap for a centrally located AC room in the national capital. “However, there are only 50 rooms and the rush of politicians and their followers and officials is such that it becomes impossible for an outsider to get a room. Frequently MLAs stay somewhere else while they book rooms in their own names to allow their friends and followers to stay here,” said an official at Bihar Niwas. The unpaid bills of Bimal are largely the handiwork of the followers of MLAs and MPs of Bihar, he added.