Urban Mirror Correspondent
Lucknow, May 21: Following the Supreme Court decision striking down legal provisions under which former chief ministers in UP have been provided palatial bungalows on government’s cost, they have landed in a piquant situation. They have now no alternative but to vacate these bungalows as the Estate Department after the apex court order has issued notices to all of them. There is now hunt for new houses for these former chief ministers.
The notices were issued last week to six former chief ministers — Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh, Mayawati, Rajnath Singh and Akhilesh Yadav — to vacate official bungalows in compliance with the court orders. They are all currently occupying prime government properties in the high-security VVIP zone in Lucknow.
The Union Minister for Home Rajnath Singh has already decided to shift to his own residence in Gomti Nagar. Similarly Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh has conveyed to the government to vacate the bungalow. The former chief minister Mayawati, who had got her Mall Avenue residence fully renovated during chief ministership in 2007 has also planned to shift to her own Mall Avenue residence. According to information hunt is also on for residences of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his father ex-CM Mulayam Singh Yadav. The notice has also been served on former CM ND Tiwari in Delhi in this connection.
The apex court’s order came on a PIL filed by former IAS officer SN Shukla, also a member of India Rejuvenation Initiative (IRI) which has been running campaign against corruption at high places. Shukla also runs an NGO Lok Prahri. Shukla, a founding member of Lok Gathbandhan Party headed by former Secretary Government of India Vijay Shankar Pandey, had first moved the High Court against allotment of huge bungalows to the former chief ministers and later moved PIL in apex court. Shukla had challenged the amendments made by the erstwhile Akhilesh Yadav government to the UP Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1981 allotting bungalows to the former chief ministers.
The apex court had on May 7 struck down the amendment to the legislation which allowed them to retain government accommodation even after demitting office, saying it violated the concept of equality. The bench had said the amendment was “arbitrary, discriminatory” and violated the concept of equality and added that once such persons demit public office, there is nothing to distinguish them from the common man. Immediately after the order the UP government started process to get these bungalows vacated.
