By IANS
Lucknow : Intervention by the judiciary could come in the way of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s plans to turn an already sprawling second official bungalow into a giant-sized estate.
The NGO ‘Jan-hit’ petitioned the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Thursday against Mayawati’s move to take over and merge at least four neighbouring bungalows with an existing house that was allotted to her as “ex-chief minister”.
Mayawati is alleged to be attempting to turn her existing 33,000 sq feet ex-chief minister’s bungalow into a 250,000 sq feet private estate in Mall Avenue, one of the most posh localities here.
This is besides the chief minister’s official residence on Kalidass Marg that has already been renovated at her behest at a whopping expenditure of Rs.45 million.
The petition seeks contempt proceedings against her for violating the government’s own undertaking whereby it had assured the court of cancelling the allotment of government accommodation to any trust or NGO and not allotting any house bigger than a Type-V to a former chief minister.
Mayawati not only has a huge Type-VII bungalow – ministerial house spread over 30,000-50,000 sq ft – in her capacity as former chief minister but has also virtually taken over three other similar bungalows in the neighbourhood, besides a 100,000 sq ft plot that used to house the office of the state cane commissioner. The office was shifted out and the structure pulled down.
The petition also points out how successive state chief ministers have violated basic rules by retaining bungalows meant for former chief ministers even when they are back in power.
“Even the president and prime minister are not entitled to retain two government accommodations but most Uttar Pradesh chief ministers have done so with impunity and so has Mayawati,” the petition points out.
The issue of allotment of houses to ex-chief ministers and trusts was raised through a public interest litigation (PIL) by former Vidhan Sabha secretary D.N. Mithal back in 1996. It was eventually disposed of by a court in 2001 following the state government’s undertaking that all trusts and other NGOs would be evicted from official bungalows.
Following Mithal’s demise, his son Anirudh Mithal, a retired general manager of the Indian Railways, moved a contempt petition before the high court alleging violation of the undertaking given by the state government.
No government official is willing to saying anything on the issue. “Since the matter is sub judice, I cannot comment on it,” said a top official of the chief minister’s secretariat.
He, however, said: “On the question of accommodation for ex-chief ministers, certain decisions have to be taken in view of all-important security considerations.”