MP govt cancels bungalow allotments for Digvijaya Singh, Uma Bharti

A month after the Jabalpur High Court ordered former chief ministers to vacate government bungalows, the Madhya Pradesh government has cancelled the allotment to Congress's Digvijaya Singh and BJP's Uma Bharti.

The two former chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, who are currently members of Parliament, have declared that they will soon vacate the bungalows. Union Minister Uma Bharti had recently visited Bhopal and asked her supporters to find an alternative residence for her. Bharti has nearly half-a-dozen cows and pets along with a paraphernalia of servants at her official residence. Uma Bharti, a Lok Sabha MP from Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh, has an official bungalow on Akbar Road in New Delhi's Lutyens' area.

Similarly, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, has a huge bungalow in the Lodhi Estate area of New Delhi. He too, has expressed his desire to vacate the house after the court order.

In addition to Singh and Bharti, Babulal Gaur and Kailash Joshi were also asked to vacate the bungalows by the high court. The high court order came following a PIL filed by a law student. 

Digvijaya Singh was Madhya Pradesh chief minister from 1993 to 2003, while veteran Kailash Joshi was chief minister in 1977. Babulal Gaur was the chief minister in 2004-05 when incumbent Shivraj Singh was hoisted by the BJP. 

During Digvijaya Singh regime, the state government had passed an order giving all former chief ministers a rank of cabinet minster and facilities, including a government house. Two years ago, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan again amended the Madhya Pradesh Ministers (Salary and Allowances) Act 1972 to allow former chief ministers to avail life-long facilities like housing, salary and perks at par with that of a cabinet minister. The amendment was done following a court case that objected to certain perks for the former chief ministers.

The order gains significance in view of the recent Supreme Court ruling in the case related to former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh. A few months ago, Uttar Pradesh former chief ministers including Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh, Mayawati, Rajnath Singh and Akhilesh Yadav had to vacate their government bungalows in Lucknow. Earlier in 2017, Madhya Pradesh former state chief minister Motilal Vora, who is now a Chhattisgarh resident, had vacated his bungalow after new amendments to the act.

Interestingly, all former chief ministers including MPs occupy sprawling B-Type bungalows located in posh areas of Bhopal. Almost all the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs hailing from Madhya Pradesh have bungalows in Bhopal or their native places, apart from having similar residences in New Delhi.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia was an exception to this, but he too, recently applied for a government bungalow in Bhopal citing the tradition of giving accommodations to MPs. Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and Narendra Singh Tomar occupies sprawling bungalows in Professors' colony of Bhopal.