New Delhi, June 16
The new ministers in the UPA government have a long wait ahead before they can take up residence in the sprawling ministerial bungalows allotted to them as the previous occupants are showing no signs of moving out.
A few days after the election results were declared last month, the Urban Development Ministry had issued notices to 26 ministers and 23 MPs who had lost the elections, asking them to vacate their official bungalows. With the exception of AR Antulay, none of the losers moved out.
Among the high-profile ministers in the previous UPA government who will have to move out include Mani Shankar Aiyar, Renuka Choudhary, Shankersinh Vaghela and Ram Vilas Paswan, who takes great pride in telling everybody that he lives next to Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s 10 Janpath residence.
Realising that it is going to be a long haul, the Urban Development Ministry has gone ahead and allotted the bungalows to the new ministers even before the earlier residents have vacated the premises. The ministry has taken into account the sensitivities of its allies and the seniority of the ministers before allotting them the bungalow of their choice.
As a result, Trinamul Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Bannerji, who is the Congress party’s invaluable partner, has been allotted Mani Shankar Aiyar’s 14, Akbar Road, bungalow. Ministry officials said there was a beeline for this particular bungalow as it has huge gardens and has been very well maintained by Aiyar, who is known for his good taste.
Similarly, great care was taken in allotting another sought-after bungalow at 1, Duplex Road, to Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister MK Azhagiri, whose is better known as the DMK heir-apparent and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s son. While the DMK had deputed a senior party member to interact with the ministry to ensure that a suitable bungalow was allotted to Azhagiri, the ministry has to take care to see that the house given to the DMK patriach’s son is larger and superior than those chosen for the other DMK ministers.
Although all Cabinet ministers are entitled to Type VIII bungalows, not all can be accommodated given the shortage of houses. The ministry
has, therefore, decreed that no junior minister will be allotted a bungalow for which he is not entitled.
However, there are several cases where exceptions have been made in the past. Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is a Minister of State, continued to occupy his father, Madhavrao Scindia’s official bungalow on Safdarjang Road after his tragic death. Another Minister of State, Agatha Sangma, former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma’s daugther, is occupying the bungalow originally allotted to her father. Sachin Pilot managed to get a minsiterial bungalow on Tyagaraja Marg as a first-time MP, primarily because of former Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s generosity.
Azad, who has been occupying a comparatively small bungalow on South Avenue is to swap with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s place on Akbar Road. When Azad moved to J&K Chief Ministership, he had managed to get his bungalow transferred to the state quota but now that he is a central minister, he has to move out and make way for Abdullah. The two, however, may arrive at a mutual understanding and continue to occupy their old bungalows.
The Urban Development Ministry, which has the thankless task of getting these bungalows vacated, is hoping that the new allottees will be able to wield sufficient moral pressure on their colleagues to move out soon.
And if they don’t, the ministry will resort to the official procedure of issuing eviction orders which are, invariably, disregarded. Since most occupants are former ministers, the ministry’s directorate of estates has to handle the cases very carefully as they cannot remove them forcibly from the premises.
