Finding accommodation for MLAs an uphill task for Punjab govt

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, July 15

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Finding an accommodation for members of the Legislative Assembly is proving to be a difficult task for the government. From allotting flats meant for officers to buying new ones in either Chandigarh or Mohali, the government is exploring its options to ensure that all MLAs get a residential pad in the state capital.

While the state government is mulling buying some flats for MLAs in GMADA-developed Purab Apartments in Mohali, as an immediate measure, it is looking at allotting the flats meant for officers in Sector 39, to the MLAs.

Soon, lounge for legislators at Sectt

A lounge for the MLAs is being set up on the fifth floor of the Punjab Civil Secretariat. It is being prepared on the directions of the CM, who has been receiving a feedback from the MLAs about the ‘lack of respect’ accorded to them in the secretariat by officers.

A meeting to find an accommodation for MLAs was held today. It was decided that the government should start the process of buying more flats for the elected representatives.

It is learnt that earlier the state government was mulling buying flats from the Chandigarh Housing Board at Rajiv Gandhi IT Park, but the proposal seems to have been shelved.

With the Assembly having 73 per cent first-time MLAs — 85 in all, of whom 82 are from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party — a majority of these MLAs do not even have a private residence here. It is for this reason that finding an accommodation for MLAs is proving to be a challenge. Till the last Assembly, a majority of the MLAs had served for several terms and owned their own private accommodation either in the city or its satellite cities of Mohali and Panchkula, and were not desirous of seeking official accommodation.

Many MLAs, all from the ruling party, have been crying hoarse over not getting an official flat in the city. Interestingly, at the very first meeting of all AAP MLAs, after they won the elections, party national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had asked them to live in their constituencies, not in Chandigarh.

AAP has 92 MLAs in the Vidhan Sabha and only 50 of them have got a government flat. Among the remaining 42 MLAs, 17 (all ministers and the Speaker and Deputy Speaker) have been allotted bungalows.

There are 117 MLAs in the state, but the number of flats available with the state government to accommodate these MLAs is just 64. As many as 38 MLAs can be accommodated in the MLA flats in Sector 3 and 4, 26 MLAs have been allotted officers’ flats in Sector 39.

2 ex-MLAs yet to vacate flats

According to officials in the Vidhan Sabha, two former MLAs — Raminder Awla and Sukhpal Singh Bhullar, both from the Congress — have still not vacated their flats. The family of a former Congress minister is living in Awla’s flat.