MP govt cancels allotment of official bungalows of 4 former CMs

Acting on the directions of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the state government today cancelled the allotment of official bungalows to four former chief ministers, including Union minister Uma Bharti and Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh.

"The allotment of official bungalows to four former chief ministers has been cancelled," Principal Secretary (Home) Malay Shrivastava told PTI.

"Besides the bungalows allotted to Uma Bharti and Digvijay Singh, allotment of official bungalows of former chief ministers Kailash Joshi and Babular Gaur has also been cancelled," he added.

On June 19, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had directed the state government to have the bungalows allotted to the former chief ministers in Bhopal vacated within a month.

A division bench of Chief Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice A K Shrivastava held that section 5 (1) of the MP Mantri Vetan Thatha Bhata Adhiniyam 1972 (MP Minister's Salaries and Allowances Act), incorporated last year, was "unconstitutional".

The high court's direction had come over a month after the Supreme Court struck down the amendment to the UP Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1981, saying it violated the principle of equality.

A petition in this regard was filed in the MP High Court by Raunaq Yadav. The petitioner had drawn the high court's attention to the apex court order to former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers to vacate their government bungalows.