Govt withdraws Rs2-cr rent bill.

Daily Pioneer:Wednesday, January 25, 2012.

The Government on Tuesday came up with the latest in its series of flipflops over the issue of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar’s “unauthorised” occupation of a bungalow.

Two months after it issued a pending rent bill of Rs1.98 crore to the Speaker for the “unauthorised” occupation of the Government residence here, the Urban Development Ministry withdrew it - intriguingly, on the ground that it now found Kumar’s family members had vacated the bungalow in 2002. Kumar had contended the bungalow had been vacated in 2002 itself.

“On examination of the documents, it has been established that House No 6 on Krishna Menon Marg was vacated on November 30, 2002 by family members (Meira Kumar) of late Indrani Devi (wife of late Jagjivan Ram). Therefore, the demand notice for Rs1.98 crore has been withdrawn,” the Directorate of Estates under the Ministry said in a statement here.

The move has once again raised eyebrows as it comes just a couple of months after the same Directorate had in an RTI reply to activist Subhash Agrawal maintained that Kumar owed Rs1.98 crore for occupation of the said bungalow since 1986 after the demise of her father Jagjivan Ram.

The Department had in an RTI reply - which too it came out with only after its attempts at not divulging the details on the pretext of excuses like “file could not be located” failed to cut ice with the Central Information Commission - given a list of 10 such persons (including Kumar) having rent dues pending against them for occupying Government premises even after losing entitlement.

The statement of dues against MP/ex-MPs in unauthorised occupation of Government accommodations stated a “rent-bill” of Rs1,9,822,723 having been issued towards Kumar’s bungalow at Krishna Menon Marg. The RTI applicant had sought to know the rent received since 2004, to whom the property is allotted and if vacant, the period from which it is lying vacant. The Ministry had come out with a summary reply stating it was allotted to Meira Kumar as the Minister for Social Justice in 2004.

Curiously, yet another RTI reply of the Ministry said that the bungalow was allotted to Kumar when she was a Union Minister in 2004 and after becoming Lok Sabha Speaker, she was allotted bungalow number 20, Akbar Road. “The bungalow number 6, Krishna Menon has not been allotted to anyone thereafter,” it said.

In the RTI reply it had also termed the sign-board ‘Babu Jagjiwanram Memorial’ and a statue of late Babu Jagjiwanram as ‘unauthorised’ at the said bungalow. The Ministry continues to be mum over these observations.