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Pratibha’s Pune home a break from tradition

Author: Josy Joseph
Publication: The Times of India
Date: April 15, 2012
URL: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-15/india/31344942_1_president-pratibha-patil-retirement-president-s-emoluments

President Pratibha Patil's decision to spend her retirement at a newly-constructed Pune house at government expense is a marked departure from a long-held tradition, besides the unprecedented opposition from a group of ex-servicemen.

 Going by the tradition, retiring presidents spent the rest of their time in a government accommodation in the national Capital or went back to their respective home states. Many officers who have served in Rashtrapati Bhavan in the past cannot recall another instance of a retiring president in recent times moving out of Delhi, and get the government to build a new house for him.

"I haven't seen anything like this," says an official, who spent several years in Rashtrapati Bhavan, while discussing the controversy surrounding the allocation of a military plot for Patil's retirement home in Pune. Observers say there have been five instances when retiring presidents left Delhi, but in none of the cases a new house was asked to be built.

 First President Rajendra Prasad went back to his home state Bihar, while his successor Dr S Radhakrishnan returned to Chennai. V V Giri and Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy too retired to their ancestral homes. R Venkataraman went back to Chennai for a while, only to return here to spend his last days.

 "For the past several years we have been seeing a trend of retiring presidents moving into a government accommodation in New Delhi," another official said. Former presidents like Giani Zail Singh, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma and K R Narayanan had all moved out of the sprawling Rashtrapati Bhavan into government accommodations in New Delhi. Ditto for Patil's predecessor A P J Abdul Kalam.

 "The transition into retirement has never been so controversial for presidents (in the recent past). We had to just coordinate with the ministries of urban development and home and identify an appropriate house in the national Capital," said an official. A seasoned presidential observer said that he was appalled at the move to build such a sprawling accommodation in the Pune military area. "It is an unnecessary controversy," he said.

 Sources, dealing with the construction of the retirement house for the President in Pune say they have been under pressure from the government to wrap up the construction. President Patil is due to retire in July.

 A Pune-based NGO, Justice for Jawans, claims that land measuring over 2.6 lakh square feet has been allotted for the President's retirement home, and a house with a plinth area of 4,500 sq feet is being constructed after demolishing two British-era bungalows. This is way beyond her entitlement, the NGO alleges.

 It quotes the President's Emoluments and Pension Act, 1951, and the President's Pension Rule, 1961, to buttress its claim that a retired president was eligible to a bungalow of up to 4,498 sq ft, where government houses are available. And if a president decides to retire to a place where no such accommodation is available, a 2,000 sq ft living area could be rented.

  The Rashtrapati Bhavan has denied any wrongdoing, saying she is eligible for a Type VIII accommodation.
 
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