Govt bungalows can no longer be memorials

Government bungalows in Delhi will not be allocated for memorials, the Union cabinet decided on Saturday, weeks after a controversy over RLD chief Ajit Singh’s demand for turning his official residence into a monument to his father.

Government bungalows in Delhi will not be allocated for memorials, the Union cabinet decided on Saturday, weeks after a controversy over RLD chief Ajit Singh’s demand for turning his official residence into a monument to his father.

The Lutyens’ Delhi house occupied by late Prime Minister Charan Singh was allotted to his son Ajit Singh after he became a minister during the UPA regime. When he lost this year’s Lok Sabha election and was asked to vacate the bungalow, Ajit Singh sought to turn it into a memorial.

The government, however, rejected the demand and cut power and water supply, forcing Singh to move out of the Tughlaq Road residence last month.

Sources said the cabinet’s decision was a reiteration of an NDA government resolution in 2000 that was violated by the UPA-2 regime when it allowed a memorial to late Bihar politician Babu Jagjivan Ram at the 6 Krishna Menon Marg bungalow.

The house was allotted to former speaker and Jagjivan Ram’s daughter, Meira Kumar.

The Union urban development ministry, which moved the proposal, cited the acute shortage of government bungalows to push for the ban.

Five such bungalows have been turned into memorials to national leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri.