Click to play videoSrinagar: Sixty-six rooms and 14 presidential suites overlooking the Dal Lake, at a cost of Rs 11 crore, Hari Niwas isn't your conventional Chief Minister's home.
But then again, Ghulam Nabi Azad isn't your conventional Chief Minister. The white mansion is the sixth official Chief Minister's residence in the last 20 years, and Azad's second.
Says constructions in charge, Riyaz Ahmad, "We have got the most talented artisans and we are using special wood for this house. It will be
completed in one-and-a-half months.''
Azad has had equally proactive predecessors. Former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed built a house that cost the state exchequer Rs 5 crore and Farooq Abdullah before him tried to build one adjacent to the Hari Niwas before his government fell in 2002.
Azad's white house, however is the costliest yet. It also falls in the Green Belt in Srinagar, where the state government had previously barred construction to try to save the Dal Lake.
However, that didn't stop the Azad-led state cabinet from deciding to redo the house - something that the Opposition is quick to pick on.
Says senior leader of National Conference, Ali Mohammad Sagar, "They say Azad sahib has got a great taste and aesthetics and that is why he chose this place. He is a great politician, but he should know where to spend money. We will certainly raise this issue on the floor of the House. "
Meanwhile Jammu and Kashmir's Urban Development Minister, Qazi Mohd Afzal, says he doesn't even know the mansion is being made.
"We have no idea about any project that is coming up. I was not consulted by the cabinet . If its going to violate the Green Belt Law, then we will stop the construction," he said.
Building palatial bungalows for themselves has become a trend for chief ministers in Jammu and Kashmir and seeing Ghulam Nabi Azad's palatial new residence, it seems our present day politicians still fancy being kings of the past.
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