Maya's aide refuses to vacate house

An Uttar Pradesh minister has realised that though former chief minister Mayawati is not ruling the state, her close and loyal bureaucrats were still powerful and call the shots.

UP minister Raja Ram Pandey, despite his best efforts, has not been able to get a once ‘very powerful’ bureaucrat to vacate the bungalow that had been allotted to him even after one month of being sworn in as minister.

Pandey was allotted a bungalow in the posh Rajbhavan Colony after he became a cabinet minister in Akhilesh Yadav’s ministry last month. Senior IAS officer and former principal secretary, home, Fatesh Bahadur Singh is still residing there.

He is considered to be a close confidante of Mayawati. When Singh was transferred to Allahabad, the same was allotted to Pandey.

But much to the dismay of Pandey, Singh has not yet vacated the bungalow and no one dares ask him to vacate it.

“I am unable to understand why the officials are so scared of Singh. They are not able to get him to vacate the house. He is just a cabinet minister, and it is the responsibility of the officials to ensure possession of the house to me,” Pandey said.

For the past one month, Pandey has been staying at a friend’s house in Lucknow.

“He not only meets people and officials at his friend’s house but also disposes off official files from there,” said an official said.

“I am literally on the road, how long can I continue to live at the friend’s house?” he said.

The officials, however, express their helplessness. “There is a set procedure for such things,” they said.

“In reality, no one has the courage to talk to Singh....till recently he was one of the most powerful bureaucrats,” quipped a senior official.