After farm loan waiver, Kamal Nath turns attention to residential 'plight' of former CMs

After the farm loan waiver order, newly minted Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath turned his attention to the next great concern: the allotment of palatial bungalows to former heads of the state.

The spacious pre-independence bungalow, from the Nawab period, was originally allotted to Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. Swaraj was allotted the bungalow in Bhopal, in her capacity as the member of parliament from Vidisha. However, after she declared that she will not contest the coming polls, the house was lying almost unused.

The bungalow, situated in a posh colony, just a kilometre away from the chief minister's residence, had served as the ‘’CM House’’ during the 70s, when Prakash Chandra Sethi headed the state. Recently, it served as the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Subhash Yadav, during the period of Digvijaya Singh.

Allotting government residences to former chief ministers had snowballed into a controversial issue in Madhya Pradesh four months before; Jabalpur High Court had ordered the state government to withdraw the facility.

Acting on the directive of the High Court, all former chief ministers, including Uma Bharti, Kailash Joshi, Babulal Gaur and Digvijaya Singh, had to vacate their homes. However, out of the four, three were relocated.

Digvijaya Singh was the chief minister of the state from 1998 to 2003, and Uma Bharti between 2003 and 2004; veteran Kailash Joshi became chief minister in 1977. Babulal Gaur headed the state from 2004 to 2005, when Shivraj Singh was appointed the new chief minister.

Digvijaya had to vacate his house under unpleasant circumstances. He shifted to a rented home. The bungalow was kept vacant in the anticipation that Digvijaya may want to occupy the house later, said a senior government official.

Chief Minister Kamal Nath issued orders to re-allot the same Shyamala Hills bungalow where Digvijaya Singh was living for the past 14 years. During the Digvijaya regime, the state government passed an order giving all former chief ministers a cabinet minister rank, and all the facilities that come along with it. A government residence is included in that. Two years back, BJP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan again amended the act—Madhya Pradesh Ministers (Salary and Allowances) Act 1972—to allow former chief ministers lifelong access to facilities like housing, salary and perks on par with that of a cabinet minister. The amendment came as a follow-up of a court case, which objected to certain perks for the former chief ministers.