Former CM of the state Bhupendra Hooda and Kothi number 70 in Chandigarh, which he did not vacate.
Former Haryana CM Bhupendra Hooda has not vacated the government house located in Chandigarh. Because of which the government has started penal rent action against them. Till now the government has imposed a penal rent of more than Rs 2 lakh on Hooda.
,
The government argues that as per the rules, after the formation of the new government, Hooda had to vacate this house number 70 within 15 days. But even after more than two and a half months had passed, he did not leave the house.
Asked for 15 days time but no possession left The results of the assembly elections in Haryana came on October 8. In which BJP formed the government by winning 48 out of 90 seats. After this, CM Nayab Saini and his ministers took oath on 17 October 2024. After which the government had asked Hooda to vacate the house in December 2024. Hooda had asked for 15 days’ time for this, but now it has been more than 2 months.
Minister Goyal had asked for a house, now applied for another one Saini government minister Vipul Goyal liked the house number 70 which Hooda is occupying. For this reason, the government also showed haste to vacate it. However, after Hooda did not vacate the house, Minister Goyal has now applied for another house.
He has asked for Kothi number 71 of Sector 7, Chandigarh from the government. This Kothi currently belongs to Chandigarh quota, hence the government is preparing to replace this Kothi of UT with its number 68 Kothi. After which Goyal will get the desired house. Presently he is running his business in MLA flat.
What is the rule of penal rent being imposed on Hooda? According to the rules of Haryana Public Works Department, any minister or MLA of the government has to vacate the government residence within 15 days of the formation of the new government. If he does not vacate within the stipulated time, penal rent action is taken against him. If the house is not vacant in the first month, 50 times the rent is charged. Penal rent is charged 100 times in the second month and 200 times in the third month. Even after this, if someone does not vacate the house, then 400 times the penal rent is collected from the fourth month.
Hooda’s claim weakened due to Congress high command If Congress had made Bhupendra Hooda the Leader of Opposition, then by getting cabinet rank status, he would neither have to vacate his house nor would have to pay penal rent. However, the Congress high command has not yet announced the name of the Leader of Opposition.
All the MLAs have already given authority to the Congress high command in this regard. In the year 2019, Bhupendra Hooda got the post of Leader of Opposition from Congress. Only after this, because he was given the rank equal to that of a Cabinet Minister, he was allotted this house number 70 of Sector 7. Earlier, from 2014 to 2019, Hooda lived in MLA flat located in Sector 3, Chandigarh.
Leader of Opposition in Congress is MLA Chandramohan from Panchkula, MLA Bhupendra Hooda from Garhi Sampla Kiloi, Dr. Raghuveer Kadian from Beri and Ashok Arora from Thanesar.
Hooda’s announcement also did not help him When Bhupendra Hooda was the Chief Minister of Haryana, he had announced that the former Chief Minister would also be given the status of Cabinet Minister in the state. He will also get all the facilities available to ministers. When the announcement was made in 2014, only two former chief ministers were included in its scope. One of them was Chaudhary Omprakash Chautala and the other Chaudhary Hukam Singh.
Om Prakash Chautala was in jail at that time, hence he could not avail these facilities. Hukam Singh was then provided all the facilities of a cabinet minister by the government. When Hooda implemented this rule, opposition parties and leaders said that Bhupendra Hooda was making plans for himself in the future.
Same thing happened, when Congress lost the assembly elections in 2014 and BJP came to power, Hooda became the former Chief Minister. However, the first government formed under the leadership of Manohar Lal Khattar reversed the decision taken by the previous government i.e. Chief Minister Bhupendra Hooda after a few days.
Opposition will get a new leader Accommodation The government is also still waiting for the Leader of Opposition from Congress. Whoever will be the new leader of opposition, the government can give him a new house. The government wants to vacate Hooda’s house. Residences for ministers under cabinet rank have been built in Sector 3, Sector 7, Sector 16 of Chandigarh and Sector 12A in Panchkula. The new Leader of Opposition can get accommodation in any of these sectors. However, most of the ministers like the mansions of Sector 3 and Sector 7 more. But, at present, except Kothi number 70 of Sector 7, all other Kothi have been allotted.
The defeated ministers have also vacated house 8 ministers of BJP had lost in the assembly elections. These include Kanwarpal Gurjar, Subhash Sudha, Jaiprakash Dalal, Abhay Yadav, Sanjay Singh, Kamal Gupta, Aseem Goyal and Ranjit Chautala. Apart from this, leaders like Dushyant Chautala, Devendra Babli also lost. As soon as the election results came, they vacated the government chambers within 15 days. After which these chambers were allotted to the ministers. At present repair work is going on in these cells.
Anil Vij did not take the house The house adjacent to the Chief Minister’s residence in Sector 3 is allotted to the senior most minister. In this context, this house was to be given to Transport Minister Anil Vij. However, he refused to take government accommodation. He updates the secretariat from Ambala itself. In such a situation, this house went to Panchayat Minister Krishnalal Panwar.
