Team News Riveting
New Delhi, February 10
The rent of properties occupied by Congress leaders, including the official residence of Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi and party headquarters, has not been paid.
It was revealed in reply to an RTI filed by Gujarat-based activist Sujit Patel. The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Development informed the applicant that the outstanding rent for the Congress party headquarters on Akbar Road had been calculated at Rs 12,69,902. The last rent for the Congress headquarters was paid in December 2012.
Similarly, rent of Rs 4610 has been pending against the official residence of Sonia Gandhi on 10 Janpath Road. The last house rent was received in September 2020.
Meanwhile, Bungalow No. C-ll/109 in Chanakyapuri occupied by Vincent George, Sonia Gandhi’s personal assistant, has unpaid rent dues of Rs 5,07,911, with the latest rent payment made in August 2013.
According to the housing laws that enable national and state political parties to stay, each party has three years to build their own office before the government house must be evacuated. In June 2010, the Congress party was given land at 9-A Rouse Avenue to build a party office.
The Congress party was supposed to depart the Akbar Road headquarters and a number of other houses by 2013, but the grand old party has requested repeated extensions.
The authorities served an eviction notice on Congress national secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in July 2020, requiring her to vacate her Lodhi Road residence within a month.
