Former MPs may have to vacate their accommodations soon

Despite requests from several former MPs for extension of their official accommodation in the national capital on various grounds, the government is unlikely to accept them. 

Over 70 ex-MPs of the total 265 members of the previous Lok Sabha, who have lost the polls, have requested the Lok Sabha secretariat to allow them to continue in their current accommodation for some more time on various grounds including health problems or children’s education. 

“As the government is under pressure to provide accommodation to newly elected parliamentarians, requests of the former MPs are unlikely to be entertained,” sources in the Lok Sabha Secretariat told Deccan Herald. Though the decision on extending accommodation to former MPs has to be taken by the Lok Sabha Housing Committee headed by BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, the panel will hold its first meeting by the end of this week or next week. 

The Lok Sabha Secretariat had issued notices to the former MPs asking them to vacate the accommodation by July 18, so that it can be allotted to 315 newly elected members of Parliament. After Wednesday, the Secretariat will prepare a list of MPs, who failed to respond to the notices and inform the House Committee, the sources said. 

“If the House Committee rejected the request, it will ask the Directorate of Estate in the Ministry of Urban Development to take steps to evict the occupants. The Directorate of Estate will serve eviction notices to the MPs and ask them to pay market rent till their stay. If the MPs do not relent, the directorate can forcefully evict the occupants,” a senior official in the Urban Development Ministry told Deccan Herald. 

As the allocation of bungalows to Union ministers is the responsibility of the Directorate of Estates, it has asked the former ministers to vacate their Lutyen Zone accommodation by June 26, so that it can be allotted to newly appointed ministers.  

While first-time MPs will be allotted flats, seniors are accommodated in South and North Avenue. The cabinet ministers, ministers of state, senior MPs and former ministers including those who are in the Opposition now get bungalows which are of various sizes going up to Type VIII.

For new MPs, transit accommodation is provided by the Urban Development Ministry in state and Union Territory guest houses and Indian Tourism Development Corporation hotels in Delhi.