Poll ticket: Party. Assembly seat: Electorate. Ministry berth: Mamata Banerjee. For everything else, there’s PWD!

Some ministers of the Trinamul-led government have deluged the public works department with lengthy domestic wish lists that include everything from teakwood bedside tables and branded crockery to buckets and pressure cookers.

The first-time ministers’ demands has forced the PWD to draw up an entitlement list of eight items (see box) that the administration would provide to each cabinet member along with official accommodation.

“It was becoming increasingly difficult to meet their demands. You have to draw the line somewhere. After consulting the authorities concerned, we listed eight items that would henceforth come with ministerial accommodation. Anything that is not on the list won’t be provided,” said a senior official in the PWD’s city division.

A minister from north Bengal is said to be have asked for a teakwood showcase and two LPG cylinders, while another sought a teakwood bedside table, a dining table, a shelf and fine linen curtains.

Some wish lists bordered on the ridiculous. A minister elected to the Assembly from North 24-Parganas wrote to the PWD for a pair of chimta (flat tongs used to roast chappatis or papad over an open flame), two rice spoons, six curry bowls with lids and as many quarter plates.

“Would you believe it? This minister wanted taxpayers to finance his pressure cooker and plastic bucket,” an official said.

A fourth minister’s list included a secretariat table and chair, a three-seater sofa and a single-seater one, made-to-order bookshelves and doormats to go with the décor. “He specified that the items would have to be made out of costly wood, including teak,” the official said.

If the PWD decided to fulfil the demands, debt-burdened Bengal would need a separate budget allocation for ministers’ personal expenditure. “The finance department is yet to sanction the Rs 2.25 crore spent on refurbishing the ministers’ rooms at Writers’ Buildings. So requesting for additional funds to give the ministers what they want for their official residences is out of the question,” an engineer said.

According to official records, the PWD spent at least Rs 2 lakh on each ministerial chamber at Writers’. “Not that the money was wasteful expenditure. The rooms were in bad shape,” the engineer said.

Now that the PWD has decided not to pamper the ministers, how does it intend convincing them to accept the decision?

A source said PWD minister Subrata Bakshi was “livid” on seeing the expenditure on renovation. “He summoned the PWD brass and asked them to draw up a list of entitlements and hand a copy to any minister asking for lavish décor.”

Mamata Banerjee had set a personal example by handing a cheque for Rs 2 lakh to the chief secretary to cover the cost of redesigning her chamber at Writers’. She was later forced to intervene in the ministerial scramble for accommodation in the Raj Bhavan complex after the PWD received six applications for four quarters.