Mehbooba Mufti Asked To Vacate Government Quarter In Kashmir

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti has been served a notice by the Jammu and Kashmir administration to vacate the government quarter she is occupying in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, officials said.

The notice served on Saturday asked her to vacate quarter number 7 at Housing Colony Khanabal within 24 hours.

“You are asked to evict the quarter under reference within 24 hours, failing which action warranted under law shall be taken against you,” read the notice by Deputy Commissioner Anantnag.

On October 20, Ms Mufti had confirmed she has been served a notice to vacate her Fairview residence – her official government accommodation in Srinagar.

Ms Mufti has been offered an alternate bungalow in Srinagar, according to the sources.

After Jammu and Kashmir became a Union Territory in 2019, the guaranteed life-term perks to all former chief ministers were withdrawn.

In 2020, two former chief ministers – Omar Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad – vacated their official residences.

As Ms Mufti’s father, late Muhammad Sayeed too was a former chief minister, she was living in the accommodation. Unlike other states, Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers were not obligated to vacate their government residences when their tenure ended or forced out of office.

Her former accommodation, Fairview Bungalow on Gupkar road, was previously an interrogation centre called PAPA-II and it served as an official guest house till 1989. It was named so after the Border Security Force occupied it in 1990.

According to reports, this centre was used regularly to conduct interrogations, until senior bureaucrat Ashok Jaitly moved into it in 1996 and used it as his residence.