Home Ministry rejects NDMC proposal to allot houses to its elected members

The proposal was passed on June 20 in a meeting presided over by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi after Delhi Cantonment MLA Surinder Singh requested for an accommodation by virtue of his election from the constituency.

NDMC officials said the proposal had been mooted in January, days after the Kejriwal-led AAP government assumed office in the capital. “A letter to the effect was sent to MHA on February 4 asking if the NDMC could provide housing to its elected members. By this time, Kejriwal had already moved into a Tilak Lane house, but Surinder Singh was yet to get an accommodation,” an official said.

Sources said the MHA had rejected the proposal on grounds that it was against the NDMC Act 2011, which allows allotment of residences to nominated members and not to elected members.

If the proposal had been allowed, it would have ended Kejriwal’s search for a house in Delhi. Kejriwal had zeroed in on a house in Civil Lines after he was asked to vacate his Tilak Lane residence. But he junked the move after the property got entangled in a dispute.