Having continued to occupy sprawling government bungalows even after demitting office, six former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers have been served notice by the estate department to vacate the same.
The notice is consequent to the 7 May 2018 Supreme Court order which struck down an amendment in the Uttar Pradesh Ministers (salaries, allowances and miscellaneous provisions) Act 1981 to provide for allotment of government residence to former chief ministers at his/her request for lifetime.
The affected ex-chief ministers are ailing Congress leader Narain Dutt Tewari, Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.
They have been asked to vacate the government accommodation within 15 days of the notice served on them. The notice was served on Thursday. Located in prime areas of Lucknow (Vikramaditya Marg, Mall Avenue and Kalidas Marg), these sprawling bungalows have anything between 15-20 rooms in them and are spread over an area of around 2,100 square metres.
The original rent of these bungalows had been fixed at Rs 600 which was later hiked to Rs 1,800. The present monthly rental of these bungalows stands at Rs 4,600.
Interestingly, Mulayam Singh’s bungalow (5, Vikramaditya Marg) stands just next to that of his son Akhilesh Yadav (4, Vikramaditya Marg) and formed part of five bungalows colloquilly referred to as ‘Panch bangaliya’.
The SP patron had met UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday. The meeting which lasted around 20 minutes had officially been dubbed a courtesy call. Sources, however, said that the issue of discussion was the two bungalows occupied by the father-son duo.
Mulayam Singh Yadav is reportedly said to have made a suggestion at the meeting that the two bungalows be allotted to the Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha Ram Govind Chaudhary and the Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Parishad Ahmad Hasan (both of the SP).
A day after this meeting, the state government served a notice to the former chief ministers. To recap, an NGO, Lok Prahari had moved the court in 2016 in which he challenged the amendment made by the Akhilesh Yadav government which sought lifetime allotment in government residence.
The SC on 7 May 2018 quashed the same and observed that Section 4(3) of UP Ministers (salaries, allowances and miscellaneous provisions) Act, 2016 is unconstitutional.