Centre asks Cong to vacate party HQ, bungalows

The Centre has sent notice to the Congress party asking it to vacate its headquarters at 24 Akbar Road in the heart of the national capital and three other government bungalows it occupied.

“Yes we have received a notice and have replied to it,” senior Congress leader Motilal Vora told reporters. He said the party received the notice, issued by the Director of Estates, in January and replied this month.  The notice stated that after the Congress took possession of land at 9-A Rouse Avenue on June 25, 2010, it was allowed to keep the “general pool bungalow” in Akbar Road for an additional three years. The allotment, it says, stands cancelled as of June 26, 2013, and the Congress is liable to pay “damage rate of licence fee” from that day onwards.

Congress has sought some more time to vacate. Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu referred the Congress reply to the Ministry Additional Secretary to examine the request. The party has been operating out of the Akbar Road headquarters since 1978. The sprawling bungalow is right next to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s 12 Janpath residence. The two-acre Rouse Avenue land, which is not far from the party’s present office, was allotted by the Congress-led UPA government in 2007 and Sonia Gandhi had laid the foundation for the new building. It was to have been constructed by 2013. Besides, the Urban Development Ministry also issues the notice to the Congress to vacate three other bungalows — two in posh Lutyens Zone (26 Akbar Road, which houses Congress Seva Dal and 5 Raisina Road which houses Youth Congress Office) and a house in Chanakyapuri diplomatic enclave.