New Delhi, July 29: Working hard inside the Lok Sabha so as to be heard, the four AAP MPs are now raising voices outside the House to secure their right to better accommodation.
Three of the party MPs are miffed at the small accommodation offered to them by the House Committee headed by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya.
Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, Patiala MP Dharamvir Gandhi and Faridkot MP Sadhu Singh Dharamsot have submitted representations to Somaiya seeking better accommodation after the House Committee allocated them flats in North Avenue.
Bhagwant wants a house in Lutyen’s Delhi. ” Why should I not be given the sprawling bungalow that my predecessor Vijay Inder Singla occupied in the upmarket Mahadev Road area? Singla was also a first-time MP when he was allotted the bungalow. Why can’t I get this house? The North Avenue flat is like a pigeonhole,” he says. It is learnt that Mann has in his petition to Somaiya demanded a better house citing his celebrity status.
Sources close to Mann say the Lok Sabha House Committee has provisions under which better houses can be allotted to celebrity MPs who have done the country proud. The list this time is long. The Lok Sabha has several celebrities like Paresh Rawal, Kirron Kher and Babul Supriyo.
Dharamvir Gandhi has asked Somaiya for a three-bedroom house instead of a two-bedroom flat. He says he needs a bigger house to accommodate the three Punjab Police personnel attached to his security. Somaiya, it is learnt has marked Gandhi’s petition to the Home Department.
Dharamsot reportedly wrote to the House Committee after he was allotted a “condemned flat” at North Avenue. “The house is in ruins. I will not occupy it. I need a bigger house as I have two police personnel in my security wing,” said Dharamsot.
Harinder Singh Khalsa, a second-time MP, is the sole MP happy with his accommodation. He has been allotted the house that he had asked for in the posh Tilak Lane locality. Rules state that first-time MPs are eligible for North Avenue flats. But former first-timer MPs Partap Singh Bajwa and Vijay Inder Singla had managed to get bungalows.