Patna: The Nitish Kumar government has served notices to eight former BJP ministers asking them to vacate their ministerial bungalows at the earliest after ceasing to be ministers, according to an official on Wednesday.
"We have served notices to the eight former BJP ministers and asked them to vacate the ministerial bungalows allotted to them from the central pool as they have ceased to ministers in the government," Estate Officer (Building Construction Department) Vinod Chaudhary told a news agency.
If the former ministers fail to vacate their official bungalows over the next seven days, two more notices, including one for eviction, will be served to them and the premises will be forcibly evicted, if need be, with the help of the Patna district administration, Chaudhary said.
These former ministers have already overstayed in the ministerial bungalows by more than a one month as they were entitled for live in the premises for only a month after ceasing to be ministers on June 16 last, Chaudhary said.
On these former ministers` contention that they be allotted alternative houses before being asked to vacate their ministerial bungalows, the Estate Officer said that they were allotted bungalows from central pool as per official entitlement, but having ceased to be ministers they are required to vacate the same.
The notices have been issued to the former BJP ministers - Ashwani Chaube, Chandramohan Rai, Giriraj Singh, Prem Kumar, Satya Narayan Arya, Sukhda Pandey, Ramadhar Singh and Janardan Singh Sigriwal.
In the case of former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and former road construction minister Nandkishore Yadav, Chaudhary said that these two BJP leaders are entitled for ministerial bungalows in their respective capacity as the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council respectively.
Meanwhile, former animal husbandry and fisheries minister Giriraj Singh said that he will write to the Principal Secretary (Building Construction) and Legislative Council Chairman to protest against issuance of notice to him to vacate bungalow without alternative arrangements.
"I will also write to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the next couple of days to protest against the matter," he said.
PTI
