JOIN USA day after New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) cut power and water supply to bungalows of former MPs to pressure them to vacate, former Union minister Ajit Singh on Sunday said he might vacate the government accommodation by September 25.
“I have lived here for 36 years. My father (Chaudhary Charan Singh) moved here in 1978 and thereafter, there are so many things I have to sort out before moving. I got the notice on August 11, and (if) I move out on 24-25 September. I do not think it’s unreasonable,” he said.
Singh maintained that he had already taken a house on lease but could not shift from the government house because of Pitru Paksha (inauspicious period). “When they (officials) came, I informed them that I signed the lease. But, now it’s “Pitru Paksh”. As soon as it’s over, in about two weeks or so, I will go,” the former Civil Aviation Minister said.
An eviction team comprising police faced stiff resistance when they went to Ajit Singh’s Tughlaq Road residence to take possession of the house last week.
The NDMC on Saturday disconnected power and water supplies to the official accommodations of 30 former Union ministers and ex-MPs, including Ajit Singh, Jitendra Singh and Mohd Azharuddin, as they failed to vacate the premises despite repeated notices issued to them.
The municipal body cracked the whip after Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu instructed the officials to take necessary action to ensure that bungalows allotted to former ministers and MPs are emptied at the earliest to accommodate those waiting for allocation.
The government, in a statement on Friday, claimed that houses allotted to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, his junior Minister Kiren Rijiju and Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal were still to be vacated by former tourism minister Chiranjeevi, defence minister A K Antony and civil aviation minister Ajit Singh, respectively.