Chandigarh: Former BSP MLA Shingara Ram Shahunggra and his family reportedly lives in a tarpaulin tent by a roadside in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district.


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This is shocking as Shahunggra had been a BSP MLA twice from Punjab.


The family has been living on a roadside in Garhshankar town since last Sunday after the government evicted them from a government house where they had been living illegally for several years, the Times of India reported.


He would perhaps be the first MLA “in a rich state like Punjab who never built a fancy house for himself in all these years”, the TOI said.


"I am looking for a place to rent with my meagre MLA pension of Rs 20,000 a month, but till then I will be living under the skies," the report quoted him as saying.


Shahunggra had been MLA from the Garhshankar seat in 1992 and 1997.


"I was thrown out of BSP after I sided with Kanshi Ram's family when they were trying to reach him in his last days," Shahungra was quoted as saying.


Referring to the eviction, an official said, "Our attempts to get the house vacated were foiled but we got it vacated with a magisterial order and police help."


"I entered politics to participate in Kanshi Ram's mission to empower the lower castes and I never tried to make money during my two stints," TOI quoted Shahunggra as saying.