After 17 months since the passing away of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan, the Directorate of Estates (DoE) under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, has sent a team of officials to vacate 12 Janpath bungalow in the Lutyens Delhi where the late Union Minister lived for nearly three decades.

The premises are currently occupied by his son MP Chirag Paswan and family members. Five truckloads of household items were shifted from the bungalow and the process will continue on Thursday, sources said.

In the past few weeks, the DoE officials visited the bungalows occupied by three more former ministers as they failed to vacate the premises even after the directorate issued the eviction orders. Officials said while the eviction process has been completed in the case of one former minister, two other ex-ministers have assured to vacate their premises in the next few days.

Sources said that the 12 Janpath bungalow, which falls under the biggest category and is located two doors down from Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence, was allotted to Paswan in March 1990 when he became the Labour and Welfare Minister, and he occupied it till October 2020 when he died.

Sources confirmed that Paswan’s family was eligible to retain the bungalow till November 2020 on rent-free furnished basis and one more month on payment of normal licence fee and payment of water and electricity charges.

Due to non-vacation, the eviction proceedings were initiated against the family members in January 2021 and subsequently the eviction order was passed in July, 2021. Being a second time MP, Chirag Paswan has got an MP flat and he is not eligible to get a Type-VIII (highest category) bungalow, said the DoE officials.

Last year, the DoE had allotted the 12 Janpath bungalow to Union Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw, but due to delay in eviction, he was allotted another bungalow in the Lutyens’ Zone.

The bungalow had been the official address of the undivided LJP, which Paswan had founded. He had also created office space for himself and Chirag in the bungalow. Some supporters of the late leader had also placed a bust and painted “Ram Vilas Paswan Smriti” on the walls of two buildings.