‘Parties should ask their ex-MPs to vacate official houses’
By IANSMonday, December 14, 2009
NEW DELHI - Pleading helplessness in the matter, the Lok Sabha Housing Committee said Monday that political parties should ask their former MPs to vacate official residences in the capital they continue to hold long after ceasing to be parliament members.
“We cannot do anything about this problem. We can just ask for a report by the Estates Department (that comes under the urban development ministry),” Chairman of the Lok Sabha Housing Committee J.P. Agarwal told IANS.
“It is for the political parties to ask their ex-MPs to vacate the official residences they were allotted during their membership term,” Agarwal said.
According to house committee sources, about a dozen former MPs are still holding on to their official residences seven months after the new Lok Sabha was elected. These former members have either lost their elections or did not contest, and with it lost their membership of the Lok Sabha.
They pay the “official market rent” for the accommodation, that varies from Rs.9,000 to Rs.100,000 per month, which is a small fraction of what privately owned properties in the same areas cost. The former MPs include Congress’ Sajjan Kumar and Akali Dal’s Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
Attempts to reach Kumar and Dhindsa by phone for their comment over the issue failed.
Ministers and MPs are allocated houses from the central government pool, while the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have separate quotas. Sitting MPs have to pay a nominal sum as Rs.105 as monthly rent. They also get 500 units of power free of cost each month.
Once they cease to be MPs, they are given a grace period of one month to vacate the houses.
The continued occupation of these houses by non-MPs has caused many new MPs to remain without an official residence in the national capital.
These include Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, three former chief ministers who are now Lok Sabha members - Mulayam Singh Yadav and Jagdambika Pal from Uttar Pradesh, and N. Dharam Singh from Karnataka.
“What can the house committee do about it? We have sent them notices but in vain. We want to throw them out but cannot,” said an angry Agarwal.
