As many as 49 Ministerial bungalows or Type VIII houses are presently occupied by former Ministers, MPs and other prominent personalities all without entitlement.

Several Ministers in the present government have already been allotted these houses by the Urban Development Ministry but they cannot move in unless the premises are vacated. Other Ministers have had to settle with smaller houses below their entitlement.

Among those who have been sent these ``informal notices'' include former Union Ministers Beni Prasad Verma, Sharad Yadav, P Chidambaram, Ram Vilas Paswan, S Jaipal Reddy and S R Bommai, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Salim Shervani. Other heavyweights on the list are Rajesh Pilot, P A Sangma, K Karunakaran, Kalpanath Rai, P Upendra, N K P Salve, Madhav RaoScindia, K Karunakaran, S B Chavan and Matang Singh.

Sources in the Urban Development Ministry said that Jethmalani has written ``polite but stern'' letters to each of these VIPs drawing their attention to the housing problem among current Ministers and requesting them to vacate the Ministerial bungalows they are occupying with immediate effect. Though unprecedented, the Minister reportedly chose to send these letters under his personal signature so that they were taken seriously and complied with.Although the letters were sent last week, sources said a majority of the VVIPs have indicated their unwillingness to move out or have sought more time.

The Ministry has offered to allot alternate houses to those former Ministers on the list who are entitled to government accommodation (much lower than that they are presently occupying) by virtue of their being elected to the new Lok Sabha.

But there are others, also former Ministers, such as Birendra Baishya, Sharad Yadav, Muni Ram Singh and Col Ram Singh whohave ceased to be MPs this time round and as a result have to surrender their bungalows.

Interestingly, the list includes names of persons who were Ministers several years ago, during the Narasimha Rao government and some even before that but have apparently managed to stay on in Ministerial bungalows.

These include Abdul Ghani Khan Choudhary (Railway Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government), S B Chavan (Home Minister in the Rao Government), H R Bhardwaj (Law Minister in the Rao Government), Taslimuddin (Minister of State for Home during Deve Gowda government), P Upendra (Information and Broadcasting Minister in the V P Singh Government) and Kalpnath Rai (Food Minister in the Rao Government).