Probe ordered on damage done by Akhilesh, staff at official residence
Lucknow, June 11: The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered a probe into the damages done in the residences of former Chief Ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav before they were vacated over the weekend on directives of the Supreme Court, an official said on Monday.
"We have the inventory of these houses and they would be matched with whatever was there at the time the possession was taken back by the Rajya Sampatti Vibhaag.... after a detailed list of the missing items is prepared, notice would be issued and recoveries would be made," a senior Estate Department official told here.
The matching of the items, including lights and other fixtures, would also be done at the residences of former Chief Ministers Kalyan Singh, Mayawati and Rajnath Singh, the official added.
Former Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari, who is critically ill and admitted at a Delhi hospital, however has not vacated his official residence and his wife has sought one year which has been rejected by the Estate Department. The extended deadline of June 3, given on compassionate grounds, is also over.
Rajya Sampatti Adhikari Yogesh Shukla said that anyone who has damaged government property will not be spared and recoveries will be done as per law.
An Estate Department team, which went on Saturday to the 4, Vikramditya Marg residence allocated to Akhilesh Yadav after he left it, said the former Chief Minister had left the house, built under his watch at a cost of Rs 42 crore, in bad shape.
Officials, accompanied with photographers, got the residence photographed extensively to show the damages done when the property was being vacated. Officials told that barring a marble temple in one corner of the house, the entire house had been damaged.
Expensive floor and wall tiles, lamination, and marble slabs have been damaged beyond repair and the electricity switch boards, switches have also been ripped off, said an official. All the air-conditioning ducts in the centrally air-conditioned house, which was rebuilt and renovated by the then SP government at the fag end of its tenure, have been plucked out, he added.
The all-weather swimming pool has also been filled with sand while the imported tiles it was lined with have all been broken, an official told IANS. Iron angles can be seen protruding at various places and many gates inside the house have also been damaged, they said.
Tiles of the badminton court, as well as the nets have also been ripped off and all the ACs, TV, furniture, and fans have also been shifted out, the official said while pointing out that they will now check the inventory of the stuff sanctioned to him and will cross check it with whatever is left behind.
As soon as pictures of the damaged house came out in the public domain, the BJP and SP leaders engaged in a verbal spat, with several state ministers slamming Akhilesh Yadav for damaging many parts of his house before vacating it "grudgingly".
Transport Minister Swatantra Dev Singh said such damage was "saddening" and in fact was a contempt of the apex court, while BJP spokesman Rakesh Tripathi said the "mindset and the culture" of Akhilesh Yadav had been exposed now.
Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chowdhary however has denied these charges saying the government has deliberately hatched this conspiracy to defame their party chief.
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Women's reservation must be implemented without being made contingent on delimitation: CM
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said that the Women's Reservation Bill is a long-overdue reform that must be implemented immediately within the existing framework, without being made contingent on delimitation.
Terming the delimitation as the political re-engineering at the cost of southern states, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said that these states will stand united, speak in one voice, and defend the true spirit of federalism.
The leaders' statements came a day before the Constitutional Amendment Bill with provisions on women's reservation implementation and delimitation was tabled in the Lok Sabha.
"You are right in highlighting the larger implications of the proposed delimitation approach and the concerns it raises for southern states. We wholeheartedly support the Women's Reservation Bill - it is a long-overdue reform that must be implemented immediately within the existing framework, without being made contingent on delimitation," Siddaramaiah said in a post on 'X'.
He was replying to his Telangana counterpart A Revanth Reddy's post on 'X' with a letter, urging the former to unitedly resist moves to push a pro rata model to increase Lok Sabha seats, which would be highly detrimental and inimical to the interests of southern states.
"Any exercise that reshapes political representation must be undertaken with utmost care. The Union Government must engage all states in a transparent and consultative process, and ensure that fairness, federal balance, and consensus guide this critical decision," Siddaramaiah added.
Shivakumar said that this is not a delimitation, but political re-engineering "at the cost of southern states".
"The proposal to increase Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 850 will systematically reduce the voice of the South, while rewarding unchecked population growth elsewhere. This is nothing but punishing progress and good governance," he posted on 'X'.
Clarifying that Congress fully supports women's reservation and in fact, it was party's top leader Sonia Gandhi's vision and commitment that brought this dream to the national agenda, the Deputy CM said, "We demand that it be implemented without linking it to delimitation or seat expansion."
"I urge the Union Govt to not hide behind women's empowerment to push a deely unfair political agenda. Rushing such a massive restructuring of India's democracy during elections, without transparency or consultation, is deeply suspicious and unacceptable," he said.
Asserting that India's strength lies in balance not domination, and in fairness, not manipulation, Shivakumar said, "The Southern states will stand united, speak in one voice, and defend the true spirit of federalism."
"We will not allow the South to be politically marginalised."
