New Delhi, July 30 (IANS): Sixteen former ministers of the UPA government were in unauthorised possession of government bungalows for over a month and have been served eviction notices, parliament was told Wednesday.
Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu told the Lok Sabha in a written reply that the former ministers owe a total damage charges of nearly Rs.21 lakh for a month of unauthorised stay.
The former ministers of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime in "unauthorised possession" of bungalows include Kapil Sibal, Ajit Singh, Farooq Abdullah, Beni Prasad Verma, M.M. Pallam Raju, S. Jaipal Reddy, Girija Vyas, Krishna Tirath, S.K. Jena, Sachin Pilot, Jitendra Singh, Pradip Jain Aditya, Porika Balram Naik, Killi Kriparani, Lalchand Kataria and Manikrao Gavit.
Naidu said the 16 former ministers owe total "damage charges" of Rs.20,92,463 for one month of unauthorized stay till July 26.
"Damage charges ranged from Rs.53,250 per month in case of Type V accommodation of Lalchand Kataria to Rs.2,43,678 for Type III accommodation of Jaipal Reddy," he said.
The minister said 21 former ministers including Ghulam Nabi Azad, A.K. Antony and Mallikarjuna Kharge were staying in "general pool bungalows" and have been given 15 days to move into their entitled accommodation to be provided by respective house committees.
"These former ministers who are members of either Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha have been advised to obtain accommodation from their respective pools," he said.
Other former ministers who have been advised to obtain accommodation from the respective pools of the two houses were M. Veerappa Moily, Vyalar Ravi, Oscar Fernandes, Jairam Ramesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, K.V. Thomas, K. Rahman Khan, K.H. Muniyappa, Shashi Tharoor, K.Chiranjeevi, Mullappally Ramachandran, Rajiv Shukla, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, A.H. Khan Choudhury, Ninon Ering, E.M. Sudershan Nachiappan, K.C. Venugopal and J. Seelam.
The minister was replying to a query by MPs Anurag Thakur, P.C. Gaddigoudar and Hukumdev Narayan Yadav.
Naidu said that 683 flats ranging from Type I to Type VII were under unauthorised occupation of former employees and others for a period ranging from one month to 21 years.