The government has issued a fresh notice to the Indian Women Press Corps asking it to pay around Rs 18.9 lakh for “unauthorised occupation” of a Lutyens’ Delhi bungalow. The notice comes days before internal elections at the IWPC.
The IWPC has received several notices from the directorate of estates – under the housing and urban affairs ministry – over alleged unauthorised occupation of the property.
The fresh notice on Monday asked the association to pay over Rs 18 lakh as damages for failing to vacate the premises allotted to them by July 31 last year – a deadline specified in a notice about expiry of lease in May.
The association has been housed in a bungalow on Ashoka Road in Lutyens’ Delhi since it was founded in 1994. The lease for the bungalow, a prized property in the capital’s most exclusive zone allotted to the journalist body by the Congress government of PV Narasimha Rao, has been renewed every few years. Until last year.
That the IPWC now occupies the bungalow without a lease has bared internal rifts that have long dogged the club, affecting the commercial activities as well as the politics of the association.
Sections of the media had attributed one such notice in 2021 to the hosting of a Pakistani official – the IWPC has hosted multiple dignitaries such as then Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the past.
Newslaundry had earlier reported on infighting within the club amid such notices.
