Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Friday refused to clear the government bungalow allotted to her, claiming that the property was converted into a memorial for her party’s ideologue, Kanshi Ram, in 2011, PTI reported.
On Monday, Mayawati had put up a nameplate outside the 13 Mall Avenue residence declaring that the building was the Sri Kanshiram ji Yadgar Vishram Sthal (Sri Kanshi Ramji Memorial Rest House). The Supreme Court on May 7 struck down Section 4(3) of the UP Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2016, that allowed former chief ministers to stay in government bungalows. The top court had said that such a legislation was “arbitrary, discriminatory and unsupported by the Indian Constitution”.
Senior Bahujan Samaj Party leader Satish Chandra Misra on Friday met Chief Minister Adityanath with a five-page letter and documents signed by Mayawati, NDTV reported. The documents were a set of government orders from 2011 – when Mayawati was the chief minister.
“The bungalow was originally allotted to Mayawati but in 2011 the UP government decided to convert it to a memorial and it was decided that because Mayawati was using only a small two-room portion and the rest has a Kanshi Ram library and murals,” Misra said, according to NDTV, adding that as per the documents, Mayawati was the caretaker of the memorial.
Misra also said that there was no notice issued asking her to vacate 6, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, which was also allotted to Mayawati as a former chief minister. If a notice is served to vacate this second bungalow, the BSP chief will adhere to it, PTI quoted him as saying.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari’s wife on Thursday requested a year’s time from Adityanath to vacate the government bungalow saying that her husband was in the “last stages” of his life, PTI reported. Ujjwala Tiwari urged the chief minister to let her keep the government bungalow for at least another year.
On May 17, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government had issued notices to at least six former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers, including those from the BJP, to vacate their official bungalows in Lucknow within 15 days. They are Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Kalyan Singh, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and Rajnath Singh.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav have also requested for a two-year grace period to vacate their government bungalow. Akhilesh Yadav claimed that he had not found an appropriate house to accommodate the security personnel provided to him as a former chief minister.
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