Govt to evict ex-MPs from Lok Sabha housing by force

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has decided to enlist the help of the police to evict some former MPs, from their official bungalows in the national capital.

Around 50 former lawmakers, mostly from the Lok Sabha, are yet to vacate their official bungalows or flats. The reasons they cite range from children studying in Delhi, family members undergoing medical treatment, to the unavailability of alternative accommodation.

The ministry will wait for another three days and request the lawmakers to vacate their accommodation. If they failed to do so, the police assistance will be taken to evict them, said an official.

The Ministry is also likely to allow a few leaders, including BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to retain their bungalows due to security reasons.

On August 19, the Lok Sabha Housing Committee headed by C R Patil had ordered around 200 ex-MPs, who did not vacate their bungalows, to give up the facility within a week and ordered the disconnecting of their power, water and cooking gas connections within three days.

Since then, most ex-MPs have vacated their official bungalows but 50 former MPs are yet to comply with the order. According to the rules, former MPs have to vacate their respective bungalows within one month of dissolution of the previous Lok Sabha.

President Ram Nath Kovind had on May 25 dissolved the 16th Lok Sabha with immediate effect on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet, after the NDA government was formed for a second term.