Uttarakhand High Court directs ex CMs to clear their balance financial liabilities

The former chief ministers of Uttarakhand viz late Narain Dutt Tiwari, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Major General B. C. Khanduri, Harish Rawat, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Vijay Bahuguna were not vacating their official Bungalows allotted to them as a special privilege and as per the government rules, hence a petition was filed in the high court which has finally issued directives to vacate them.

All these former chief ministers are quite well off financially and had their private houses in Delhi and Uttarakhand apart from the government bungalows allotted to them in their capacity of being MPs. Major General Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishan who were MPs had been allotted bungalows in Delhi but they were also having Bungalows at Dehradun, being ex-chief ministers of Uttarakhand. However, Narain Dutt Tiwari has a government type 5 allotment at Tilak lane in New Delhi since ages which is still being continued by his family even after his sad demise, by his wife Ujjwala Tiwari.

When the Uttarakhand high court directed these former chief ministers to vacate their huge official bungalows occupied by them for several years despite their not being chief ministers of the state these ex CMs were compelled to vacate them but after too much of reluctance.

However two of them viz Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Vijay Bahuguna ( both ex CMs ) had tremendous financial liabilities in several lakhs which they haven’t paid to the Uttarakhand government despite a number of notices. While former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari had the liabilities of whopping 45 lakhs pertaining to his bungalow and other expenses for enjoying various facilities, Vijay Bahuguna had the financial burden of 37 lakhs against his government bungalow and other expenses incurred during his tenure. These liabilities pertained to the expenses for various facilities enjoyed by them but had not been cleared despite several reminders.

Finally, once more time the Uttarakhand high court had to intervene and issue directives to the state government for recovery of the pending amount against both the ex-chief ministers. According to sources, both the chief ministers had appealed to the court through petitions for reconsideration of their earlier appeals to grant them special privilege for remittances of these financial liabilities/ repealing them but the high court has revoked their petitions for the second time asking them to pay the same at the market rate.

After the high court’s revocation of their requests/ appeals for writing off these financial liabilities, both the former chief ministers of Uttarakhand viz Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Vijay Bahuguna have now been directed to clear the entire backlog of Rs. 45 lakhs and 37 lakhs respectively on the basis of the market rate penalty on the monthly installment basis of Rs 30500 and Rs. 39000 per month respectively till the above-said amount is cleared fully and finally.

It may be recalled that both Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Vijay Bahuguna are currently holding no positions and are in BJP. These liabilities pertain to former CM Vijay Bahuguna while he was in Congress. He joined the BJP later on with 11 MLAs of Congress after his differences with the then CM Harish Rawat in 2017.