New Delhi: Amid a raging controversy, President Pratibha Patil on Friday voiced “pain” at being portrayed as insensitive to war widows and and announced that she will forgo her post-retirement accommodation in Pune as “misgivings” continue to persist “despite clarifications” on allegations of land grabbing.
“The president has been reading and watching the unfolding of some fallacious observations regarding the accommodation in Pune which she was to occupy after relinquishing the office of the president,” the Rashtrapati Bhavan said said in a statement.
“She chose not to react as she has always held herself answerable to the constitution of our country and her conscience,” the president’s office said.
“It was expected that once the facts were made public it would convince the concerned people. But despite clarifications given by the president’s secretariat, it is unfortunate that the misgivings continue to persist,” the statement added.
The president’s house had first issued a statement in April 12, asserting that no rules have been violated in a plan to build a post-retirement home for her in Pune.
Patil’s decision to forego her planned post-retirement home came a couple of days before she leaves on an eight-day trip to South Africa and Seychelles.
An organisation of ex-servicemen in Pune has claimed that over fives acres of land had been alloted for her residence after she leaves office at the end of her five-year-term in July.
Lt. Col. (retd) Suresh Patil who is involved with the Pune-based ‘Justice for Jawan’, part of NGO ‘Green Thumb’, had alleged that 260,000 sq ft has been alloted to for the president’s retirement home in Pune’s Khadki cantonment. He questioned why a house with a plinth area of 4,500 sq ft was being built by bringing down two British-era country bungalows.
In Mumbai, the retired officer immediately welcomed the president’s move. “It’s good news. Tears of joy rolled down my cheeks,” said Suresh Patil. “I was fighting a lone battle for the last six months, almost single-headedly,” he said, adding that he could not have heard better news.
The president’s decision to spend her retirement at a newly-constructed Pune house was seen by many as a marked departure from a long-held tradition. (IANS)