55 ex-ministers from Manmohan Singh cabinet get notices to evict bungalows

The Directorate of Estates (DoE) has sent eviction notices to all the Lok Sabha (LS) members who lost their seats, including 55 ministers from Dr Manmohan Singh's cabinet. This has been done to make way for newly elected members and Union ministers. According to a DoE source, the notice asks all of them to vacate their official accommodation by June 26.

"Eviction notices have been sent to over 300 former Lok Sabha members who have lost the election, including to 55 former ministers," he said.

Among these ministers are high profile ones, such as Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ajay Maken, Ajit Singh and Beni Prasad Verma.

Also, many former ministers, who have managed to retain their Lok Sabha seats, have been asked to get ready to shift to smaller accommodation from their ministerial bungalows. "Ex-ministers like Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya scindia, who managed to retain their seat, have been asked to shift from ministerial bungalows into smaller ones," the DoE official said. "Its a challenging job to provide accommodation to first-time MPs as ex-ministers always find alibis to hold on to big houses," he said.

After taking over as Urban Development (UD) minister, Venkaiah Naidu had also appealed to former ministers and Parliamentarians to vacate their official residences on their own and set a good example.

New MPs are staying in transit accommodation at the moment. They have been accommodated into over 200 rooms in the State and Union Territory guest houses and over 150 rooms in ITDC Hotels in Delhi.