Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti on Friday confirmed that she has been served a notice to vacate her Fairview residence – her official government accommodation in Srinagar.
According to the sources, Mufti has been offered an alternate bungalow in Srinagar. Soon after the state was converted into a Union Territory in 2019, the guaranteed life-term perks to all former chief ministers of J-K were also withdrawn.
Notably, in 2020, two former CMs of Jammu and Kashmir – Omar Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad – had already left their official residences.
As Mufti’s father, late Muhammad Sayeed was the CM of J-K in 2005, she was living here since then, as unlike other states, J-K chief ministers were not obligated to vacate their government residence when their tenure ended or they were forced out of office.
Her former accommodation, Fairview residence 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 as a regular centre to conduct interrogations, until senior J-K bureaucrat Ashok Jaitly moved into it in 1996 and used it as his residence. (ANI)
