Former Union Minister Chidambaram did not claim rental allowance for his private residence owned by his wife - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 18, 2021
A social media post claiming that ‘former finance minister and congress member of parliament P. Chidambaram lived in a house owned by his wife and claimed monthly rent allowance of 20 lakhs from the government for 10 years’ is being shared widely.  Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: ‘P. Chidambaram lived in a house owned by his wife and claimed monthly rent of 20 lakhs from the government for 10 years’.
Fact: P. Chidambaram resides in a bungalow allotted to him by the government. Moreover government does not bear the rental expenses in case if a member of parliament decides to reside in a private house. The Delhi High court imposed a fine of one lakh rupees dealing with a PIL requesting to pause the central vista project in the light of the COVID-19, the court commented that it is a motivated petition and not a genuine public interest litigation.  Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Generally, the members of the Parliament are entitled to rent-free residential accommodation in the form of bungalows, flat/hostel accommodations in Delhi. However, if a member of parliament decides to reside in a private house, the member himself has to bear the rental expenses and the central government does not pay them.
As per the information available on the Rajya Sabha website, P. Chidambaram who is a member of the upper house resides in an accommodation allotted by the government in Delhi. This means that the central government is not bearing any expenses for his private residence.
This is also evident from the information available on the Rajya Sabha website related to expenditure incurred on the salary and allowances of members every month. Apart from constituency allowance and office expense allowance which every member is entitled to, there is no mention of any other allowance which Chidambaram is receiving from the government as claimed in the post.
Further, the post claims that most of the secretariats of various ministries are working in rented accommodation owned by congress and communist leaders for whopping rental values. However, there is no official information or news reports confirming this. Further, the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore informed the Lok Sabha that ‘there is no centrally-maintained data on the amount spent by various government establishments for renting office space in Delhi.’ However, it is noteworthy to mention that as per these news articles (here & here) the central government defended the central vista project in the Supreme Court by asserting that the project would save 1000 crores annual rental expenditure on secretariats.
The post also claims that the Supreme court has dismissed an appeal to stop the central vista project and imposed a fine of one lakh rupees. However, it is not the Supreme court but the Delhi High Court which has imposed a fine of one lakh rupees while disposing of a petition related to the central vista project.
Back in May 2021 when the COVID-19 restrictions were being implemented in Delhi, a PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court requesting the central vista project be paused on the grounds that the project is not an essential activity and going forward with the construction work would put the lives of workers at risk. However, after hearing both sides, the court refused to stay the construction work. Further, the court dismissed the petition imposing a fine of one lakh rupees stating that the petition is a motivated petition and not a genuine public interest litigation. The petitioners later approached the Supreme Court which also dismissed the matter and refused to interfere with the judgement of the Delhi High Court
To sum it up, former Union Minister P. Chidambaram did not claim a rental allowance for his private residence owned by his wife.