Even after almost 50 days in the office Chief Minister Rekha Gupta couldn’t get an official residence for her in the national capital. After refusing to shift to a controversial 6, Flag Staff Road residence which was occupied by former Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, the authorities have yet to find a suitable accommodation for Delhi CM. The Delhi government’s Public Works Department (PWD) has been assigned to find a suitable and appropriate bungalow for the chief minister, but so far, no clarity could be found on this.
Delhi CM is commuting from her personal residence from Shalimar Bagh to the Delhi Secretariat every day. She is keen to shift to an official bungalow provided either from Delhi or the central pool. There are two main concerns for her-the first is that at her personal residence, there is a space crunch, and she can’t meet the large number of visitors who normally throng her residence to get their work done. Since early morning, visitors which include common people senior officers and even VIPs used to visit. There is hardly any space to conduct any meetings as the space doesn’t allow it. The second problem is that of distance. Shalimar Bagh is almost 25 kilometres away from the Delhi secretariat and hence she has to travel this distance every day.
That’s why CM Rekha Gupta is looking for an appropriate location for her residence either in civil lines or the Lutyens Delhi. “It’s been 50 days since her residence has not been decided. Since she has been meeting with around 700-800 people every day, she is facing lots of challenges. It always required another facility like Secretariat to handle meetings as a CM cannot stay from morning to evening at Secretariat,” sources said.
Initially, she visited a few of these bungalows to finalise one of them. Civil lines are although nearer to her assembly constituency the Lutyens zone is convenient for meetings at the Central Government. But, here the problem is that if she wants a flat from the central pool then central agencies like CPWD must allocate which might take some more time and hence a longer wait for official residence for the Delhi Chief Minister.
According to the sources, two bungalows used as official residence in Civil Lines area by ministers of the previous AAP government may be merged for the CM as the location is suitable for CM’s accommodation.
Another bungalow located at 3 Motilal Nehru Marg is also an option which PWD is considering. There is another Bungalow at Ansari Road in Daryaganj area that could be allotted for the CM. Former Delhi CM Atishi has been allotted a bungalow on Ansari Road here as her official accommodation. The PWD has also issued a tender to carry out repair and renovation work worth Rs 39 lakh in the 115 Ansari Road bungalow allotted to the Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly.
“We will carry out the general repair required in the bungalow. It has been lying vacant for more than a year and requires changes in tiling, kitchen, drainage systems and other interiors,” a senior PWD official said. Atishi had earlier requested that she be allowed to retain the AB-17 Mathura Road bungalow. However, according to PWD officials, this bungalow is part of the Centre’s pool of accommodation and it could not be allotted to her as part of inter-pool exchange. AAP sources said Atishi had written to the PWD in March, requesting that she be allotted the bungalow on Ansari Road in Daryaganj but did not receive any response.
