E-Paper
High court to UP: Why are government bungalows given to political parties in Lucknow?
The petitioner alleged that political parties had merged these bungalows against the larger public interest and the action taken by them was illegal and arbitrary.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Friday asked the state government to explain why government bungalows were provided to political parties in Lucknow. The court gave four weeks to the state counsel to file a counter affidavit (reply) in this regard.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by a local lawyer, ML Yadav, in which he had challenged the merging of huge government bungalows with the offices of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the state capital.
Yadav sought directions from the court to quash the government orders passed from 2001 to 2008, allowing merger of bungalows with offices of these political parties.
The petitioner also sought directions to get these bungalows vacated and restored to their original shape.
Seeking a detailed inquiry into the issue by an independent agency, the petitioner urged the court to recover damages from the political parties concerned.
The petitioner alleged that political parties had merged these bungalows against the larger public interest and the action taken by them was illegal and arbitrary.
He said that the bungalows originally allotted to the parties were expanded by merging them with adjacent bungalows, which was a gross misuse of estate property.
The petitioner submitted that as per an amended scheme, a type Vl bungalow could be allotted to a recognised national political party and a type V bungalow could be allotted to a recognised regional political party.
The state government was represented through its counsel who requested for and was granted four weeks for filing the reply, the petitioner’s counsel said.
In the petition, the state of UP (through chief secretary, principal secretary (estate department) and estate officer) and the political outfits concerned (through their national presidents) were made the opposite parties.
