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Handling 86 boisterous, defiant and spendthrift khadi-clad ministers is no joke. No one knows this better than Uttar Pradesh chief minister Rajnath Singh. The recently-concluded budget session of the state assembly clearly showed the money being squandered by his fleet of ministers. From April 1 to December 31, 2000, Rs 4.08 crore was spent for tea and snacks alone. Imagine a 15-minute tea break every working day for 80-odd persons costing close to Rs 1.70 lakh a throw!Rajnath Singh's government has earmarked Rs 25.18 crore for the expenses of his ministerial team. But going by the present expenditure trends of the ministers, the ledger is likely to close at nearly Rs 30 crore in March 2002. Which works out to a monthly expense of Rs 2.5 crore for the cabinet's upkeep. Notes Hukum Singh, minister for parliamentary affairs: "It has been a tradition in Uttar Pradesh not to impose any limitation on a minister's pocket money. It is expected that we as ministers would exercise self-discipline. Unfortunately, this is not the case any more and something surely has to be done about...