Party HQs may soon have a new address

NEW DELHI: Three years down the line, 24, Akbar Road and 11, Ashoka Road will cease to house the headquarters of the Congress and the BJP. The Union Cabinet, acting on the basis of a Supreme Court directive, On Friday approved the guidelines and the roadmap for providing alternate sites to these, and other, parties in the institutional areas dotting the city.

The political outfits will be allotted land in the L&DO areas, which could mean that the parties would have the option of selecting sites in RK Puram, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg and areas falling under the Delhi Institutional Zone (DIZ). These plots will be made available to them at institutional rates.

The size of the plots will be commensurate with the strength of the parties in the Lok Sabha. Outfits which have been accorded the “national” tag by the Election Commission and having at least seven MPs on board will be entitled to such plots.

The norms and guidelines formulated by the urban development ministry would appear to favour bigger parties such as the Congress and the BJP. The smaller, unrecognised parties are certain to lose out.

The government, however, stood its ground, asserting that a uniform and rational policy had to be framed while allotting land to the political parties in the Capital to enable them to function effectively.

“This exercise is to be completed in three years,” defence minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after the meeting of the union cabinet here on Friday morning. The parties should vacate the official bungalows immediately on construction of their office-buildings or within three years of taking over the land allotted to them on leasehold basis, he said.

On the quantum of land to be allotted, Mr Mukherjee said that political parties with a strength of up to 15 MPs will be given 500 sq mtrs, 1,000 sq mtrs plot to parties with 16-25 MPs, 2000 sq mtrs plot to parties with 26-50 MPs, one acre to parties with 51-100 MPs, two acres for parties with 101-200 MPs and four acres to parties with over 200 MPs.

State parties having at least seven MPs would also be entitled for these plots, while those parties with four MPs would be provided accommodation in the VP House near Parliament complex, Mr Mukherjee pointed out.