Priyanka Gandhi Vadra proved to be a good bargainer 14 years ago when she got the then Vajpayee government to reduce the rent of her house from Rs 53,421 to Rs 8,888. The information was accessed under an RTI application, filed by Noida resident Dev Ashish Bhattacharya.
According to the Times of India report, the daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi said that it was beyond her capacity to pay such high amount for a 2,765.18 sqm house in Lutyen’s Delhi. Priyanka’s argument, in a letter she wrote on 7 May 2002 to the government, was that she had been occupying the bungalow on the request of Special Protection Group (SPG) and a large part of it was occupied by SPG itself.
The house was allotted to Priyanka, a private citizen, on the recommendations of the SPG, cabinet secretariat and the home ministry in 1997.
Apart from Priyanka, three other ‘private citizens’ – former Punjab DGP KPS Gill, All India Anti-Terrorist Front chief MS Bitta and editor of Punjab Kesari, Ashwini Kumar were provided residence by Government of India on security grounds. The rent was brought down for all the four protectees – from Rs 60,741 to 10,715 for Gill, from Rs 55,536 to Rs 10,203 for Bitta and from Rs 50,311 to Rs 8,555 for Ashwini Kumar.
Priyanka Gandhi currently resides in a type VI government accommodation at 35, Lodhi Estate and pays Rs 31,300 per month as rent.
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