After the Jammu and Kashmir administration asked her to vacate the government’s Gupkar Road residence, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti is shifting to her sister’s under-construction house in the Srinagar suburbs
Mufti will move to the two-storey house with her mother, daughter, and personal and security staff in Khimber, an area between hills and apple orchards and poplar fields. The house belongs to her younger sister and brother-in-law who are doctors in America. She has been given a new deadline by the administration to move out by the end of November: a 15-day extension as per the notice sent to her.
The administration had earlier asked Mufti to vacate the official Fairview residence by November 15 but when the former CM requested that she would need more time, she was given two more weeks to empty the house meant for chief ministers. As per a new order passed in 2020, former CMs of the erstwhile J&K state aren’t entitled to stay in “designated” CM’s house.
Mufti’s new residence is more than 20 km away from both Fairview and Lal Chowk’s party office. It can be reached through a narrow road from the landmark Harwan park. A further 20 minutes drive will take you to her new address, an isolated spot in the lap of mountains. Unlike Fairview, which borders the lush green Zabarwan hills, Khimber is a work in progress and the hills appear barren though the route from Harwan is both scenic and a bit tough to secure as it passes through dense apple orchards, poplar, and bushy stretches.
The house looks sturdy from the outside but the interior will take months to be done. The plumbing lines need to be fixed for the leaks, the front lawn levelling and its extension landfills. “A lot of work needs to be done but madam is moving anyhow before the deadline,” a close confidant told News18. He said Mufti and her daughter Iltija have been regularly monitoring the work.
Mufti, he said, has taken a conscious decision not to move to her Nowgam residence in Srinagar which was built by her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in the 1990s and where she started off politically under his mentorship. Formerly with the Congress, the father-daughter duo built the new party named Peoples Democratic Party brick by brick in the late 90s.
In 2002, senior Mufti became chief minister with the support of the Congress.
“Her brother lives in Nowgam and the family has decided to let it be,” the confidant told News 18, adding that despite the disadvantages of distance and terrain, she chose Khimber.
Though the administration has offered her government accommodation at a secure Tulsibagh area, Mufti spurned the offer apparently because she feels “at home” in Khimber.
Considering the new address is far from the city centre and workers will have an issue covering an off-route, Mufti will be in the party office at Lal Chowk twice a week for meetings. Only last week, she had hinted that she would vacate the Fairview residence, saying her shifting “is a non-issue” and there were more grave problems faced by people.
Mufti is not the only politician who has been served a notice to vacate the government home. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah too had to give up his “official” residence. In Jammu, a former sacked BJP minister was also told to free his government accommodation.
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