Faced with the prospect of getting evicted from their palatial government bungalows on Vidramadiya Marg, Samajwadi Party patron and former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav offered to pay rent on market rates.
Mulayam wrote to Estate Officer Yogesh Kumar Shukla seeking two years’ time to vacate his government house owing to Z plus security cover and offered to pay rent on market rates till then.
Earlier his son and former CM Akhilesh Yadav also sought two years’ time from the Yogi government to vacate the adjacent bungalow on 4, Vikramaditya Marg claiming he did not own any house in lucknow and for security reasons, he needed a spacious accommodation until he found one.
On May 16, Mulayam had called upon Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seeking relief for himself and son Akhilesh. Yadav Senior had suggested that their bungalows be allotted in the name of SP leaders in Vidhan Parishad and Vidhan Sabha.
However, the CM remained non-committal on the matter, since the direction to former UP CMs to vacate their official bungalows had come from the Supreme Court.
In the letter to the Estate department, Akhilesh claimed that he did not own any residential property in his name lucknow. However, the Estate department informed the former CM that the state government was bound by the court order that had annulled the law granting life term allotment of accommodation to former CMs.
Disposing of a petition filed by lok Prahari, the Supreme Court on May 7 had quashed a provision in UP Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1981, which entitled former CMs to lifelong official accommodation. later, the government had issued notices to 6 former CMs to vacate their official premises in compliance with the apex court directive.
These included Mulayam, Akhilesh, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati, union home minister Rajnath Singh, Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh and veteran Congress leader Narayan Dutt Tiwari.
While, Rajnath and Kalyan have already started the process of shifting, Mulayam, Akhilesh and Mayawati have shown unwillingness to vacate their respective bungalows.