AAP accuses LG admin of allowing BJP to retain govt accommodation in JK

Senior AAP leader Harsh Dev Singh accused the Jammu and Kashmir administration of allowing some BJP leaders to retain government bungalows despite the dissolution of assembly in 2018

Senior AAP leader and former minister Harsh Dev Singh Monday accused the Jammu and Kashmir administration of allowing some BJP leaders to retain government bungalows despite the dissolution of assembly in 2018.

He alleged not only were these leaders allowed to retain the estates department bungalows but several of them had been permitted to stay without any rent.

"Despite the assembly having been dissolved in 2018, the bureaucrats had allowed the BJP leaders to retain the government mansions including ministerial bungalows in defiance of the SOPs and in blatant circumvention of the orders of the High Court," Singh said.

Referring to a reply obtained by him recently in response to an RTI application, Singh said the rent outstanding against individual leaders ran into lakhs with the estates department authorities failing to act.

Likewise, the power tariff ran into several lakhs against several such MLAs in respect of the estates quarters illegally retained by them, he alleged.

He also alleged the administration also allotted estates department bungalows in Gandhi Nagar, Jammu, after the dissolution of assembly for an Apni Party office and People Conference office in violation of rules.

These parties had been provided accommodation for their political offices in Jammu in view of them being "sister organisations of ruling party", he said.

Likewise, security was provided to leaders on the basis of their political affiliations, proximity to corridors of power and other extraneous considerations without having regard to the actual threat perception and vulnerability of such political person, he said.

Singh added that several officers who had been allotted Ladakh union territory and were no more serving in J&K union territory had also been allotted estates bungalows in Gandhi Nagar in Jammu.

He said that six estates bungalows had been allotted to officers of Ladakh, while the J&K officers were accommodated in private bungalows rented on huge premium running into several lakhs.

The RTI reply stated at least 44 government officers were lodged in private bungalows in Jammu alone putting a huge burden on the state exchequer, he said.