No Lutyens home for Kejriwal, but Centre bent rule for Virbhadra, Chavan

[caption id=“attachment_131362” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A bungalow in Lutyens Delhi[/caption] While Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s request to the Centre for a modest home in Lutyens Delhi was turned down on grounds that government properties in this part of the capital were meant for Central government ministers and bureaucrats alone, it appears that the Centre had no qualms about sidestepping the rulebook when it came to bungalows for Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. Only last week, the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation cleared the allotment of a Type VII bungalow for Singh, from the state’s quota. The CCA’s approval, says this report in The Indian Express, was required since the matter is beyond the purview of the Directorate of Estates – allotting a Type VII bungalow to somebody who is neither a central minister nor a bureaucrat. Maharashtra’s chief minister Prithviraj Chavan also continues to occupy a Type VIII bungalow on 11, Race Course Road, long after he ceased to be Parliamentary Affairs minister in 2010. Only last week, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar was at the centre of controversy when the Centre agreed to allot a bungalow for a memorial in the name of her father, Babu Jagjivan Ram. The bungalow was given on a 25-year lease to the foundation.