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The BJP dubbed the bungalow as “Sheeshmahal” and ran a campaign against Kejriwal. | File Photo: PTI
The AAP dispensation indulged in “the most devious and diabolic” exercise to “mislead” people over allotment of 6, Flagstaff Road bungalow by “subverting” norms and procedures and “hiding facts”, a statement from the LG office charged on Saturday.
A day after the bungalow was allotted to Chief Minister Atishi, the LG office blamed her also of being part of the exercise.
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The bungalow where Arvind Kejriwal lived as the Delhi chief minister for nine years came into a full blown tussle involving the AAP, BJP and the LG office over its vacation and fresh allotment.
“Within a span of just about 48 hours, when the house was handed over by Kejriwal and allotted to Atishi, the AAP, ministers and even the chief minister, resorted to the most devious and diabolic exercise of misleading the people of Delhi and the entire country by way of subverting norms and procedures, hiding facts to this effect and abusing the LG incessantly,” alleged the statement.
Sources at the Delhi Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said it was “sad to see the statement by the LG office which is full of abuses and allegations on the elected government.
“The AAP government is busy working on a war footing to revive and fix all the works stopped by the LG in the last few months. These comments by the LG are really not worth responding to,” they said.
The Secretariat said that the LG was “abused” and political motives were attributed to him.
The AAP dispensation, government ministers and party leaders have alleged that Atishi was forced to vacate the bungalow by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena at the behest of the BJP.
Atishi, who claimed that she would work from the streets after she was made to vacate the Flagstaff Road bungalow, “conveniently forgot” to tell the people of Delhi that she already has a bungalow, 17-AB on Mathura Road, the LG secretariat said.
A “seven star office renovated at a cost of hundreds of crores” in the Delhi Secretariat was also available to her to work from and she was not needed to indulge into “theatrics”, charged the statement.
The LG office also said the building plan of the Flagstaff Road bungalow has not been sanctioned till now by the MCD and a completion certificate was not issued because of this.
“The house, therefore, till now is a patently illegal structure,” it claimed.
The BJP dubbed the bungalow as “Sheeshmahal” and ran a campaign against Kejriwal alleging “irregularities” in its construction during the COVID pandemic and stuffing it with costly interiors and household items.
In the wake of the controversy, the LG office alleged that Delhi suffers from “the worst of civic infrastructure and services” due to “misgovernance” of the AAP government for the past 10 years.
“If they had governed and worked for what they have been elected for, even for two years out of the 10 years, Delhi would have been in a much better shape and they would not have been blaming all and sundry and abusing the Lt Governor for their abject failures,” the LG office said.
The statement said that the 6, Flagstaff bungalow, which was now allotted to Atishi after Kejriwal, has a built up area of 1,905 square metres as the residential complex and 500 square metres as the camp office.
“In comparison, the highest categories of Type-8 bungalows, which are allotted to the PM, Chief Justice of India, judges, ministers and others, have a built up area of 460 square metres only with an additional 100 square metres for other utilities,” it said.
The LG office alleged that the keys of the Flagstaff Road bungalow were “handed over surreptitiously, directly by Kejriwal or his wife to Atishi (through their personal staff), as if it was a private property being handed over by one owner to another”.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Oct 12 2024 | 9:00 PM IST
