New Delhi: The record Rs 92.35 crore bill spent for the upkeep of Union ministers’ official residences last financial year could have paid for 10 new government schools, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has said, accusing the Centre of misplaced priorities.
“Stop fixing your lavish homes, and fix the schools!” CJP said in an X post, reacting to a PTI report on the rising expenditure on colonial-era bungalows occupied by ministers.
“Rs 92 crore = 10 new world-class government schools. The money is available, the intent to use it for government schools is missing,” the CJP post read.
Founded by Abhijeet Dipke in May as a satirical response to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s “cockroach” remark, the CJP has since emerged as a broader youth movement centred around issues such as unemployment and examination irregularities.
Its latest campaign has focused on the state of government schools.
According to information PTI obtained through an RTI query, expenditure on renovation, furnishing and repair of the official residences of Union ministers in Delhi rose from Rs 27.47 crore in 2014-15 to a record Rs 92.35 crore in 2025-26.
The Central Public Works Department (CPWD), which maintains the residences, spent a cumulative Rs 547.68 crore on such works over the 12 years from 2014-15 to 2025-26.
The expenditure has risen sharply in recent years. It averaged Rs 26.78 crore annually between 2014-15 and 2018-19, nearly doubled to around Rs 50 crore between 2019-20 and 2023-24, and subsequently climbed to Rs 71.98 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 92.35 crore last year.
Officials have attributed the increased bill to the cost of maintaining the ageing bungalows, many of which are 80 to 100 years old and suffer from problems such as seepage, termite infestation, and ageing electrical and plumbing systems.
AAP leader and former Delhi minister Somnath Bharti, meanwhile, sought to contrast the expenditure with the controversy over the construction and renovation of the official residence occupied by Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister.
“Why doesn’t the Godi media debate this 92 crore splurge on repair of houses of ministers in Modi govt who left no stone unturned to criticise Kejriwal govt for constructing a CM house?” Bharti wrote on X.
The BJP had made the expenditure on Kejriwal’s former Civil Lines official residence a major political issue, repeatedly accusing the previous AAP government of extravagance and referring to the property as a “sheesh mahal”.
