LUCKNOW: Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is likely to be served a recovery notice for the damages his official bungalow suffered at the time of eviction. The probe report submitted by the public works department to state government on late Wednesday night claims that 4, Vikramaditya Marg, the official residence suffered damages to the tune of Rs 5.84 lakh when the former CM was vacating it. The PWD report also claims that unauthorised construction from government resources worth Rs 4.67 crore had been conducted on the bungalow premises at the time Akhilesh took its possession in late 2016.
According to the highly-placed sources, on the basis of 266-page report submitted by PWD chief engineer AK Sharma to State Estate officer, the Estate department might send a recovery notice to Akhilesh Yadav but only after seeking opinion of legal experts. The report, which TNIE has an access to, details all the damages to the tiles and electrical wiring of the main portion of the bungalow. It also presents a breakup of damages to sanitary fixtures, brick work, paint, plasters and flooring of the guest house and waiting room. The damage to the construction work done by PWD in the bungalow amounted to Rs 64, 822.22 while damage to work done by other resources amounted to Rs 5.19 lakh. Total damages done in the bungalow were to the tune of Rs 5.84 lakh.
Notably, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had vacated his official bungalow -- 4, Vikramaditya Marg - in June this year following an eviction order by the Supreme Court of India directing all the former CMs, including Rajnath Singh, Kalyan Singh, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav and ND Tiwari, to vacate government accommodation. After Akhilesh vacated his bungalow, there were reports and visuals of alleged rampage inside the property in a cross section of media following which the state government ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident. The inquiry committee had the mandate to assess the damages done to the bungalow.
According to sources, while the damages done to the bungalow were video graphed during the inquiry, the report claims the former CM had got a lot of construction done beyond the basic structure of the bungalow. As per other details of unauthorised construction, the former CM got a double-storey guest house built on the premises spending Rs 174.9 lakh, a double storey Security building housing a sprawling waiting room was built at Rs 156.50 lakh. A whole double storey block dedicated to servants accommodation was constructed at a cost of Rs 56.53 lakh. Besides, a generator room at Rs 22.92 lakh, trimix flooring at Rs 13.19 lakh and a pathway was also constructed at a cost of Rs 1.23 lakh in the garden of the bungalow.
Akhilesh had spent around Rs 73.29 lakh on the renovation and beautification of his bungalow and a porch with some other facilities was built for Rs 54.15 lakh. Thus total Rs 5.57 crore were spent on extra construction in the bungalow by the former CM.
Moreover, PWD's contribution to Rs 5.57 crore of unauthorised construction was merely Rs 89.96 lakh while the rest Rs 4.67 crore was arranged from other resources by the former CM. However, in a sharp reaction, the Samajawadi Party trashed the probe report as a bundle of lies projected allegedly to malign Akhilesh Yadav.
According to SP spokesman Sunil Singh Sajan, the BJP led government was jittery of the grand alliance coming up against it as it was rattled by its imminent defeat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "So, the state government has stooped down to this level to tarnish SP chief's image," he said. It may be recalled that after media reports on alleged damages to the bungalow, Akhilesh had claimed that he had purchased the fittings he was accused of taking away from the bungalow. "I am being targeted as the BJP has a problem that SP and BSP are now in a coalition," Yadav had said. Meanwhile, in a rebuff, state government's spokesman and cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh had asked the SP chief to reveal the source of money he claimed to have spent on the bungalow's beautification.