The average Indian MP is not happy with the accommodation provided by the Union government and many first-time Lok Sabha MPs have requested the government for bigger accommodation.

Congress’s Mohd Azharuddin and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Shatrughan Sinha have, for instance, requested the Lok Sabha Housing Committee to allot them bigger houses. Lok Sabha Housing Committee chairman J P Aggarwal, however, told The Sunday Express that such requests have poured in from “many first-time MPs”. While he was not ready to specify the number, he said, “yes” when asked if this number (number of first-time MPs wishing to have a bigger accommodation) would be “upwards of ten”.

As per conventions, first-time MPs are allotted flats in the capital’s South Avenue, North Avenue and Meena Bagh localities. Type VIII bungalows (on New Delhi’s Akbar Road, for instance) are the most coveted addresses in town. While the Housing Committee has completed the task of allotting houses to all Lok Sabha MPs, it is not sure how to deal with requests for bigger houses—an issue that came up for discussion at the panel’s meeting a couple of days ago.

Azharuddin, who represents Moradabad in Lok Sabha, confirmed that he had requested the Housing Committee for a bigger house. Asked if that was in keeping with the Congress’s current thrust on austerity, the cricketer-turned-MP said: “What is the problem in requesting for a bigger house, if there does exist such a provision? What’s austerity got to do with that?” He, however, added that he would settle for the house allotted to him “if nothing came out of his request”.

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