After Gupkar residence, Mehbooba Mufti asked to vacate govt house in Anantnag

After being asked to vacate the Fairview bungalow in Srinagar’s posh Gupkar Road, Jammu and Kashmir administration has asked former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti to check out of government quarters in her home district of Anantnag.

Reports said Mufti and two other former legislators of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and one from the Congress have been served an eviction notice by an executive magistrate on Saturday on the directions of Anantnag deputy commissioner to vacate government quarters in the Housing Colony Khanabal area of Anantnag.

The occupants of government quarters numbers 1, 4, 6 and 7, which belong to former legislators Mohammad Altaf Wani, Abdul Rahim Rather, Abdul Majeed Bhat and Mehbooba Mufti respectively, have been asked to be vacated within 24 hours, reports added.

Also Read: Landlords in Jammu and Kashmir renting out to non-locals ordered to install CCTVs

The occupants have been warned of action under the law if they fail to vacate the premises within the stipulated time.

Earlier on October 15, the Estates Department of the Jammu and Kashmir government had served a notice to the PDP president to vacate her official bungalow in the high-security Gupkar area, here.

A second notice sent 10 days later, said she was an “unauthorised occupant” and was “no longer entitled to retain the government accommodation in the capacity of ex-chief minister”, and gave her time until November 15 to move out.

However, according to reports, Mehbooba has not vacated Fairview residence till now and is in the process to move to a six-bedroom bungalow at Khimber, northeast of Srinagar which belongs to her sister, who is settled abroad.

With lifetime perks guaranteed to all former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir gone after the government of India amended state law, two former CMs - Omar Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad – had already vacated official residences in 2020.

The Fairview residence of Muftis was formerly an infamous torture centre, known as PAPA-II. Until 1989, it served as an official guest house. The building was occupied by the Border Security Forces in 1990 who named it PAPA-II. It continued to function as an interrogation and torture centre till 1996 when Ashok Jaitley, then Chief Secretary moved in and used it as his residence.