SP bungalows are next on list

LUCKNOW: The estate department is out to acquire and ''gift'' premium lands in the state capital to the Bahujan Samaj Party. The department has helped the BSP to ''grab'' as many as three bungalows in posh areas in the recent past. It is now training its sights on two sites owned by the Samajwadi Party.
The two bungalows in question are the office of the Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha (SYS) at 6 A, Raj Bhawan Colony and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Trust building at 1, Vikramaditya Marg, respectively.
The palatial Lohia Trust bungalow, one of the five in a row on the Vikramaditya Marg, was allotted to the trust in 1990. Later in 1994, the state government allotted the premises to the trust on 99-year lease. This was a policy decision taken at a cabinet meeting and a GO was also issued in this regard.
However, the Trust was declared ‘illegal occupant’ by the estate department recently. The department contends that the Trust did not get the format of the lease conditions prepared and the agreement executed.
The Trust countered it by saying that there were specific instructions to the estate department in the 1994 GO that it would get all the required formalities completed regarding the lease. If it did not make the necessary documents available to the Trust, the trustees cannot be held responsible for it.
Besides, the state government cannot make a U-turn on its previous GO and is bound to let the Trust continue to possess the premises.
In the case of SYS house, the Estate department has slapped Act No 8 of 1997 (the UP Ministers and State Legislatures, Officers and Members Amenities Laws (Amendments) Act 1997), UP Legislature (Members Emoluments and Pension) Act 1980 and UP Legislature (Officers, Salaries and Allowances) Act 1952.
Under these Acts, any suitable government accommodation can be converted into a minister’s house and the occupant may be evicted within 15 days by the estate department.
The SYS house has been allotted to the government printing press minister Amar Mani Tripathi, who is already staying in a government residence.
This is the second time that the estate department has tried to get this house vacated, the previous instance being in 1997. At that time, the SYS had been granted a stay by the 4th additional district judge, Lucknow.