Aside from the state government warning that action would be taken against former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav, for the ‘damages’ inflicted to public property while vacating his official bungalow, a probe conducted by a ‘technical committee’ indicated that Yadav spent over Rs 4.67 crore on erecting ‘illegal structure’ in the official bungalow.
The state government spokesperson and health minister Siddharth Nath Singh said “The report submitted by the five-member committee states that Yadav not only caused damage to the government bungalow but also carried out illegal construction inside it. He carried out extra construction without taking permission of the estate department. Legal action will be taken against him for flouting the rules.”
Singh said that after the media had highlighted the damages Akhilesh caused to the bungalow, Yadav had lambasted the state government, “He tried to make it a political issue but now the report of the committee has made it clear that Yadav damaged the bungalow. Now he should respond to the probe report,” said the minister.
In a 266 pages report submitted by the inquiry committee headed by Chief Engineer (Bhawan) of Public Works Department (PWD) mentioned damage to the terrace, kitchen, electrical equipment, floor tiles, lawns, paint, brickwork and bathroom fittings of worth Rs 5.19 lakh. Besides, the team also claimed that the loss due to illegal structure erected by Yadav came to Rs 5.84 lakh.
The probe team also found that besides construction carried out by Estate Department, Yadav had pumped in Rs 78.39 lakh for maintenance/beautification, Rs 54.15 lakh for the extension of house, Rs 174.95 lakh in two-storeyed guest house, Rs 156.50 lakh on security house/two storeyed-waiting room, Rs 56.53 lakh on servant’s quarter (double storeyed), Rs 22.92 lakh on generator room, Rs 13.19 lakh on Trimix flooring and Rs 1.23 lakh on pathway. All this came to a whopping Rs 5.57 crore.
It may be mentioned that out of this amount, about Rs 90 lakh went from Estate Department coffers.
The row over the vacating of official bungalows started when the Supreme Court, on 7th May 2018, struck down the amendment to the Uttar Pradesh Ministers (Salaries, Allowances, and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1981 to provide for the allotment of government residence to former chief ministers for a lifetime. Former CMs, including Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rajnath Singh, Kalyan Singh, Akhilesh Yadav and ND Tiwari were amongst those who were asked to vacate the government bungalows following the Supreme Court order.
Setting a new example of ‘socialism’, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and current president of Samajwadi Party, left his government accommodation in ruins after he was asked to vacate it on Supreme Court’s orders. When confronted on this, the arrogance he exuded only shows how entitled the politicians of our country are, especially those shoved down our throats because of nepotism.
