Chief Minister bungalow row: Lieutenant Governor alleges rule violations by AAP

A political row has erupted over the allotment of the official residence at 6 Flagstaff Road in Delhi, which was previously occupied by former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat, in a statement issued on Saturday, accused the AAP of deliberately violating established norms and procedures during the transition of the property from Arvind Kejriwal to the current Chief Minister, Atishi.
According to the statement, Kejriwal handed over the possession of the house to the Public Works Department (PWD) on October 9. Following this, the property was inventoried and officially re-allotted to Atishi by the PWD on October 11.
The PWD, as the custodian of all government estates, follows a standard procedure similar to that of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), which applies to high-ranking officials, including the Prime Minister, judges, and ministers, the Lt Governor’s Secretariat said.
The Secretariat further claimed that both Kejriwal and Atishi had acted in violation of the protocols. It said that Arvind Kejriwal handed over the keys of the residence directly to Atishi through personal staff, bypassing official procedures.
This act, the statement alleged, was an attempt to portray the house as private property being transferred from one individual to another.
The row over the bungalow had erupted after AAP leaders, including Atishi, publicly criticized the Lt. Governor, accusing him of political interference in the allotment process.
The statement from the LG’s office, however, clarified that the PWD, which is under the direct control of the AAP government, handled the entire process without any involvement from the Lt. Governor.
“However, within a span of just about 48 hours, when the house was handed over by Shri Kejriwal and allotted to Ms. Atishi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), its Ministers and even the Chief Minister, resorted to the most devious and diabolic exercise of misleading the people of not only Delhi but the entire country, by way of subverting norms and procedures, hiding facts to this effect and abusing the Lt. Governor incessantly,” the statement said.
In addition to procedural violations, the statement highlighted that the building plan for the house had not been sanctioned by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), rendering the structure “patently illegal” in the absence of the necessary completion certificate.
The Lt Governor’s office accused AAP of focusing on political theatrics while neglecting the pressing civic issues facing the capital, stating that had the party governed effectively, Delhi would not be in its current state of mismanagement.