Government cancels houses allotted to 3 Congress MPs & Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh

NEW DELHI: After serving a notice to Congress party to vacate its headquarters, the government has now decided to cancel houses allotted to five MPs, including three Congress MPs, and Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh.

The bungalow allotted to former Union minister Arjun Singh and allowed to be retained by his wife has also been cancelled. The decisions were taken by the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation on Thursday. According to sources, CCA cancelled allotments to five MPs as they had been staying in houses of higher category than their entitlement. These include Congress' Sanjay Sinh, B K Hariprasad, Ashk Ali Tak, JD (U) MP K C Tyagi and NCP MP Udayan Raje Bhonsle. The allotments were cancelled because the MPs were eligible for Type V accommodation but had been staying in Type VIB and VII accommodation.

The Cabinet Committee on Accommodation also cancelled the allotment of 1 Canning Lane bungalow retained by Saroj Kumari, wife of Arjun Singh. The cancellation was done as the committee said bungalows are allowed to be retained only six months after the death.

CCA also allotted government houses in Delhi for the Chief Ministers of Assam and Telangana while that of Himachal Pradesh has been cancelled. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has been allotted a house(Type-C 1) against state quota. Telangana chief minister K.Chandrasekhrara Rao has been allowed to retain house he was allotted as union minister (23, Tughlak Road) with in the state quota.
Allotment of HP CM Shri Virbahadra Singh (1,Jantar Mantar Road) was cancelled since the decision of CCA of 1988 does not allow allotment of houses for CMs.

Exemption has been given to CM of Assam since the state Bhawan is under construction. CM of Telangana has been allowed retention since Telangana does not have a state Bhawan.

The only other Chief Minister occupying a government house in Delhi is Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Harish Rawat, who was earlier allowed to retain house on medical ground for one year period which expires in June this year.