BLUNT BUTCHER
JAMMU: It may be a sheer coincidence that a year after former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand set an unprecedented example of vacating his official residence soon after relinquishing office (in the wake of Congress-National Conference debacle in 2014 elections) without being asked so and within the stipulated time-frame, the current lot of former BJP and PDP ministers have been served marching orders to leave with bag and baggage from their palatial bungalows, in both Jammu and Srinagar.
Estates Department has served notices to the former members of the council of ministers of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on Wednesday to vacate their ministerial bungalows within next seven days.
Although the Muftis showed the decency of moving out from the Chief Minister’s residence in Jammu, their ministers and their juniors failed to emulate thus putting themselves in an embarrassing situation.
The notices have sent shock-waves among the illegal occupants, who despite having lost their sheen as ministers, kept flaunting their newly acquired stature with desperate hope of the government getting in place soon.
If the move of the Estates Department is any indication the possibility of new government formation between BJP and PDP looks bleak now as both the parties have deliberately toughened their stand instead of bending their knees.
The notices were issued to these senior ministers after a thorough exercise was conducted by the Governors administration to vacate these bungalows.
According to sources in the Civil Secretariat “the notices were served to all those senior and junior ministers who have not vacated their bungalows on Wednesday.
The notices according to these sources were served to former ministers including the then Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, Science and Technology and Animal Husbandry Minister Sajjad Lone, Agriculture Minister Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, Health Minister Lal Singh, Education Minister Nayeen Akhtar, Social Welfare and Forest Minister Bali Bhagat, Youth Services, Sports and IT Minister Imran Raza Ansari, R&D Minister Abdul Haq Khan, Industries Minister Chandra Prakash Ganga. The notices were also issued to junior ministers Sunil Sharma, Priya Sethi and Mohammed Ashraf Mir.
According to the notice, “the ministers were entitled to free accommodation for a period of one month after the imposition of Governor’s rule on 9th January.
As per the allotment rules of State Estates department a person is entitled to hold government accommodation including Ministerial bungalows up to one month after relinquishing/ceasing to hold the office and this one month in the instant case has expired more than a fortnight ago.
According to the notices served to these former ministers, “the ministers have been directed to hand over the possession of ministerial bungalows to the State Estates department within a period of seven days from the date of issuance of notices”. They continued to use free water, electricity and others doles that used to be offered to them when in office.
Since some of the senior ministers were not occupying the ministerial bungalows and were staying in their private residences or still occupying MLA accommodation they were not served notices. These included PDP’s Abdul Rehman Veeri, Sukhnandan Choudhary, Choudhary Zulfkar Ali, Asiya Naqash, Abdul Ghani Kohli, Abdul Majid Padder and Javaid Mustafa Mir.
It remains to be seen how many ministers would really vacate the cozy comforts of their ministerial bungalows and readily shift out with their bag and baggage.
Meanwhile, sources told STATE TIMES that the Governor’s administration is asking the Police and the State Motor Garages to scale down the security of former ministers in accordance with their requirements as MLAs or MLCs besides withdrawing vehicles. Some of the ministers are retaining the fleet of vehicles deployed by the Security Wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police, State Motor Garages and the departments they headed as ministers.
