Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, January 24: As many as 72 government houses in the Capital have been occupied by various political parties, memorials, trusts and cultural organisations, many of them without authorisation and despite having received eviction notices for years.
The long list of offenders available with the Union Urban Affairs Ministry’s Directorate of Estates reveals that little known social and cultural organisations have been occupying government houses for years, despite a series of eviction notices and in violation of the Supreme Court order of 1996.
To name some: Indus Ind Foundation (193, Rouse Avenue), Samajwadi Sahitya Nyas Trust (190, Rouse Avenue), Ravi Shankar Shukla Samiti (16, Willingdon Crescent), Handicapped Welfare Association (14, Tansen Marg), Shahjahan Road Club (21, Shahjahan Road), Kasi Nagri Pracharni Sabha (1-A, Sunehri Bagh Lane), Parliamentary Farmers’ Forum (215, Rouse Avenue), Green Cross Society (147, North Avenue), Moti Bagh Mutual Aid Educational Society (Flat 8/Site 1, Nanakpura) and Akhil Bharatiya Hindi Sanstha Sangh (34-D, Kotla Road).
All the above organisations have been issued several eviction notices by the Directorate of Estates during the last couple of years, following directions from the Supreme Court in 1996 on a PIL, alleging malpractices in the allotment of houses. The court had held these allotments invalid and directed the government to have the premises vacated.
Strangely, ministry sources admit that no policy or guidelines exist for allotment of houses to memorials and cultural organisations. They point out that such allotments have been done on an adhoc basis depending on the clout of the government in power.
If trusts and cultural organisations have cornered prime government properties, political parties are not far behind. Records show that as many as 44 government bungalows and houses have been occupied by various political parties for office and residential purposes.
The maximum among these, 15, are in the possession of the Congress, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (10). The Janata Party and the CPI come next with four houses each, followed by Janata Dal with three.
Sources say that apart from unauthorised occupation, several of these trusts, memorials, cultural organisations and political parties have not paid their dues for years together and owe the estates department lakhs of rupees in arrears.
A division bench of the Delhi High Court which took up the issue of allotment of Government houses to political parties, memorials and trusts suo moto last year in its interim order on November 10 directed that no further allotment of houses for trusts, memorials and political parties should be made without the court’s permission.
In their order, Justices Anil Dev Singh and Mukul Mudgal also froze all pending allotments. The matter, which again came up for hearing on January 11, has been further adjourned till March.
In its defence, the Urban Affairs Ministry told the Delhi High Court that the government had not yet formulated new guidelines for allotment of houses to political parties. The proposal, the ministry said, was pending with the secretariats of both the houses.
In its December 1996 order, the Supreme Court, while directing the government to frame new guidelines, had said that houses should be allotted to only those political parties which were recognised as national parties by the Election Commission. The court had also indicated that the number of houses to be allotted to each party should be fixed in consultation with the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson.
