Delhi CM bungalow row: LG secretariat, CMO squabble over ‘abuse’

NEW DELHI: Attacking Aam Aadmi Party for the controversy about the allotment of the official residence to the chief minister, the LG's secretariat on Saturday accused it of indulging in a "most devious and diabolic exercise" of "misleading" people by "subverting norms and procedures" and "hiding facts". A day after the Public Works Department issued a letter offering the 6, Flagstaff Road bungalow to CM Atishi, the LG's secretariat alleged "abuse" of the lieutenant governor.
In a statement, the LG's secretariat said, "Within a span of just about 48 hours, when the house was handed over by (former CM Arvind) Kejriwal and allotted to Atishi, AAP, ministers and even the CM resorted to the most devious and diabolic exercise of misleading the people of Delhi and the entire country, by way of subverting norms and procedures, hiding facts to this effect and abusing the LG incessantly."
In response, sources at the CM's office said it was "sad" to see the statement by the LG office, which, it alleged, was "full of abuses and allegations" against the elected govt. "AAP govt is busy working on war footing to revive and fix all the works stopped by the LG in the last few months. These comments by LG are really not worth responding to," the CM's office said.
A full-blown tussle had broken out between AAP and BJP over the vacation of the bungalow, where Kejriwal lived for over nine years as the CM of Delhi, and its re-allotment to Atishi, with both the parties levelling allegations and counter-allegations at each other. The AAP dispensation alleged that Atishi was forced to vacate the bungalow by LG VK Saxena at the behest of the BJP.
The LG secretariat alleged that the keys of the bungalow were "surreptitiously" passed on from the former CM to Atishi as if the house was a private property. It added that Atishi, who claimed she would work from the streets after vacating the bungalow, "conveniently forgot" to tell the people that she already had another allotted bungalow, 17-AB Mathura Road.
A "seven-star office renovated at a cost of hundreds of crores" in Delhi Secretariat was also available to her to work from and she was not needed to indulge in "theatrics", the LG's secretariat charged.
The statement also pointed out that the building plan of the Flagstaff Road bungalow hadn't been sanctioned by MCD and a completion certificate hadn't been issued because of this lacunae. "The house, therefore, till now is a patently illegal structure," it claimed.
Delhi has suffered from "the worst of civic infrastructure and services" due to "mis-governance" of AAP govt for a decade, the LG's secretariat maintained. "If they had governed and worked for what they have been elected for even two years out of the 10 years, Delhi would have been in a much better shape and they would not have been blaming all and sundry and abusing the LG for their abject failures."
The statement added that the bungalow, which has now been allotted to Atishi, had a built-up area of 1,905 square metres as the residential complex and 500 sq metre for the camp office when the highest govt residence category, Type 8 bungalows, allotted to the PM, chief justice of India, judges and ministers, had a built-up area of 460 sq metres with an additional 100 sq metres for other utilities.