May 4, 1998

By Sayantan Chakravarty

Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav is a perfect host. The parties that he hosts are elaborate affairs, and his sprawling 9 Akbar Road bungalow in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi makes for an ideal venue. But the good times may just be coming to an end.

Last week, Union Minister for Urban Development Ram Jethmalani sent out personal letters to 48 VVIPs asking them to vacate their bungalows at the earliest. It's a customary agenda every new housing minister sets himself. But the bigwigs have paid scant attention to such ministerial warnings in the past. Many of them have continued to stay in bungalows they are not entitled to, confident that no government will actually evict them.

But Jethmalani is dead serious. "I hope you will not take it amiss to vacate the bungalow as soon as possible," his brief letters said, clarifying how he was under pressure to find houses for the new team. Over 40 ministers of the BJP-led Government are currently being put up in government guesthouses for want of regular accommodation.

Those who have received the notices include such names as P. Chidambaram and Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose residences on Aurangzeb Road and Krishna Menon Marg fall in the prestigious Lutyens' Bungalow Zone. Of the 48 targeted, three -- Sharad Yadav, Sukhbans Kaur and Colonel Ram Singh -- are MPs who lost the recent elections and are no longer entitled to government accommodation. Fifteen of the remaining 45 are entitled to Type VII bungalows, meant for former ministers, former governors and top bureaucrats. Most of them, however, still occupy the more spacious Type VIII bungalows. The rest have to settle for the less fashionable Type V to Type VII housing in areas like Pandara Road, Kidwai Nagar and Chanakyapuri.

"We want those entitled to smaller houses to move out immediately," says Jethmalani. While a few days' delay for genuine reasons is acceptable, there would be no room for negotiating for a longer stay. Under the Public Premises (Eviction) Act, anyone not complying with the order can be forcibly evicted. That this has rarely happened is, of course, another matter.

While delivering the judgement on the housing allotment scam involving former urban development minister Sheila Kaul in December 1996, the Supreme Court had laid down eligibility criteria for government accommodation. But a presidential ordinance later nullified the judgement. Now, Jethmalani seems determined to set the house in order.

It may be an uphill task though. Already, there are rumblings in some quarters. Says Sharad Yadav, who has been staying on Akbar Road for 11 years: "I will move out provided I am given alternative accommodation befitting my status." And Mulayam says his security requirements under the Z plus category makes it difficult for him to move out of his current residence. That's an argument the articulate lawyer in Jethmalani is only too willing to take up.

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