SC cracks the whip, but can ex-CMs of UP forgo their luxury?

Half a dozen former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh as well as the present incumbent Akhilesh Yadav were rattled by Monday's (August 1) Supreme Court order, doing away with a long established practice of allotment of plush government bungalows for a lifetime to them.

The practice - unique to UP - was started by then chief minister HN Bahuguna in the 1970s. While erstwhile chief ministers opted for modest residences, extravagance became the order of the day from the 1990s with every incumbent turning more extravagant than the other and misusing the state exchequer with impunity.

Among the former chief ministers still holding on to such houses are Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh, Narayan Dutt Tiwari and Ram Naresh Yadav, who have been enjoying free luxury at the best address in the state capital.

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Akhilesh's worry stems from the fact that he was in the process of getting one such bungalow luxuriously renovated at the government's expense for occupation after he ceased to be chief minister.

A massive sum of about Rs 45 crore had already been spent on the double-storey bungalow spread over two acres of land in Lucknow's posh Vikramaditya Marg, where his father Mulayam has an identical house which was allotted to him as ex-chief minister at end of his first stint in 1989-'91.

Interestingly, Akhilesh has been living in that very house as part of a joint family with his father ever since he became the chief minister in 2012.

The designated chief minister's residence is used by him more like an extension of the chief minister's office, which he rarely visits.

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Yet, he could not wish away his entitlement of identifying a giant bungalow and getting it readied for his post-chief ministerial days. While the bungalow already had about a dozen rooms, a huge annexe has been constructed on the sprawling premises where an air-conditioned badminton hall has also been erected.

The complex was being dutifully adorned by state government agencies in accordance with the whims and fancies of the chief minister in about the same manner as his predecessor Mayawati who was ironically flayed by both Mulayam and Akhilesh for spending Rs 103 crore on raising a grand mansion for herself after pulling down two government buildings in the heart of Lucknow's posh Mall Avenue.

In fact, the practice of extravagant spending on such opulent houses was started by none other than Mayawati, during her first brief four-month stint as chief minister in 1995.

Earlier, an outgoing chief minister would handpick a Type VII house that would be allotted to him/her with routine minster level furnishings.

But Mayawati took this privilege to a different level. Just before she laid down office, she earmarked the erstwhile designated house of the Assembly speaker - 13-A, Mall Avenue - for her own post-chief ministerial days. In those days, about Rs 1 crore was spent by the government estates department on its renovation which included installation of 18 new air conditioners, expensive furniture and top class furnishings.

When she returned to power, she added a huge hall as annexe to be used for press conferences and meetings with party workers.

In her third stint, the bungalow was again refurbished. But what she did in her fourth stint was unprecedented - the bungalow was initially converted into some kind of a memorial to her mentor and BSP founder Kanshi Ram (it was named Manyavar Kanshiramji Ratri Vishram Sthal).

However on second thought Mayawati decided to pull down the entire building, acquire the neighbouring building that housed the office of the state sugarcane commissioner, and razed it to create a 1,00,000 sq ft space for the construction of a new Rs 103 crore grand "haveli", surrounded by a 20-foot high wall.

What is most unique about this complex is that besides that of Kanshi Ram, it has a giant size statue of Mayawati, installed under pink sandstone canopies in one corner of the lawn. A huge underground parking was also created under the lawn at her behest.

It was Mulayam who took the cue from her and got his Vikramaditya Marg bungalow renovated on returning to power in 1993-'94. But large-scale additions in the bungalow were made in 2002 when Mulayam came to power once again. Sure enough, the expenditure was higher this time, running up to about Rs 10 crore.

It was this record that was beaten by Mayawati when she returned with a bang in 2007 taking luxury and opulence to unprecedented heights.

Significantly, even as both Mulayam and son Akhilesh went hammer and tongs about Mayawati's "misuse of taxpayer's money", Akhilesh did not hesitate to do a Mayawati himelf by going ahead with a budgetary provision of Rs 45 crore for the renovation of the bungalow handpicked for himself.

In fact, the Vikramaditya Marg bungalow was his second choice. Earlier, he had chosen another government property in the same neigbourhood which housed the office of the state's chief town planner.

The office was moved out and large-scale renovation of the building was undertaken for about a year after which Akhilesh felt the need to stay closer to his father's residence.

So the bungalow next door was earmarked and renovation undertaken to the extent of defacing the architecture of what was a heritage building. With a view to providing another entry on the rear side, he ordered pulling down of a house on Kalidas Marg to include that area too within this complex, where work was still going on in full swing.

Highly placed sources claim that the Akhilesh government is in no mood to give up that easily and top lawyers are being consulted to find some way to circumvent the apex court's order by seeking a review.