Chief election commissioner AK Joti on Monday said he paid rent for the bungalow he retained in Ahmedabad after joining the poll panel in Delhi and didn’t take favours from the Gujarat government.
Denying impropriety in occupying a government accommodation while holding a constitutional position, Joti said he kept the house in Ahmedabad as he was not allotted a family accommodation in the Capital on joining the poll panel in May 2015.
“I was staying in a room in Gujarat Bhavan in Delhi, but was paying the rent for the house that my wife continued to occupy in Ahmedabad,” the country’s top poll officer told Hindustan Times.
The Gujarat government was paid rent for the May 2015 and October 2016 period, he said.
A news portal recently reported that Joti, a 1975-batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, didn’t vacate the bungalow he was given as the Gujarat state vigilance commission member. Joti was appointed to the anti-corruption watchdog after retiring from the government.
The report coincided with the election commission calling Himachal polls but leaving out Gujarat announcement, with the Congress and the other parties accusing the poll panel of withholding dates to benefit the ruling BJP.
{{/usCountry}}The report coincided with the election commission calling Himachal polls but leaving out Gujarat announcement, with the Congress and the other parties accusing the poll panel of withholding dates to benefit the ruling BJP.
{{/usCountry}}The decision, said Joti, was taken to allow the state administration to complete the flood-relief work.
His house issue cropped up after an IPS officer challenged the state government’s decision asking him to vacate his premises immediately upon his transfer from Gujarat to Assam.
The official, Satish Verma who was part of the special investigation team that probed the controversial Ishrat Jahan encounter, accused the government of targeting him.
Joti, however, denied seeking favours and said he had to wait for a year before he was allocated accommodation in Delhi. The Ahmedabad house was returned to the government in October 2016.
A former secretary of industries, revenue and water supply in Gujarat, Joti was appointed the country’s top election officer in July.