Delhi’s Public Works Department on Wednesday issued a notice to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, asking the Aam Aadmi Party to vacate its office at Rouse Avenue immediately as the “allotment was illegal”, PTI reported. A PWD official told PTI, “The department has not given any time frame to Aam Aadmi Party as the office allotment was illegal.”
The department has submitted a report to the lieutenant governor’s office where it says the Delhi government does not have the power to allot land to political parties. It also claims that in the case of Delhi, such powers rest only with the Centre. The official said they may also retroactively charge the AAP rent for occupying the premises. The AAP has been functioning from the bungalow on Rouse Avenue since 2016.
AAP Secretary Pankaj Gupta said the party is yet to decide what it will do next. He, however, cried foul. “This is truly frustrating as AAP is being singled out despite being a state party with an over-whelming majority,” Gupta told the news agency. He added that like AAP, other political parties have also occupied bungalows for decades. “But no action has been taken against them,” said Gupta.
The PWD’s notice comes five days after Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal cancelled the land allotted for the AAP’s headquarters after the Shunglu Committee report accused the Delhi government of “gross abuse of power”. The panel sanctioned by Baijal’s predecessor Najeeb Jung had found irregularities in the allotment of land for AAP offices and several other appointments. It had reviewed 404 files of the Delhi government and concluded that the AAP administration had passed orders without consulting with the lieutenant governor first as per law.
After Baijlal denied a plot of land to AAP for its headquarters in the Capital, Kejriwal had said that it was the first instance in independent India when a ruling party was denied office space. He had pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress had multiple offices in the city. “The Congress has four offices...the BJP has seven offices...while AAP, which has 67 [Assembly] seats in Delhi, has no office. Even the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party have an office in Delhi, but the AAP’s office has been taken away,” the chief minister had said.
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