The MLA Hostel here has become the new prison for nearly three-dozen VIP politicians in the Valley, whom the government has moved out of a premier hotel turned jail apparently because the need for winter heating was driving up the already huge bill.
Officials said these 34 politicians had been detained at the Centaur Hotel on the Dal Lake’s banks since the government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5. On Sunday afternoon, they were shifted to the MLA Hostel at the city centre.
Most of these 34 are former MLAs and ministers. Those shifted include Ali Mohammad Sagar and Mubarak Gul of the National Conference, Naeem Akhtar and Nizamuddin Bhat of the People’s Democratic Party, Sajjad Lone of the People’s Conference and IAS turned politician Shah Faesal.
Tweets from the account of Mehbooba Mufti, operated by her daughter Iltija since the former chief minister was jailed in August, alleged that some of the leaders were manhandled.
One tweet said: “Police manhandled them & roughed up Sajad Lone, Waheed Para & Shah Faesal. Is this how you treat elected representatives? Why humiliate them? J&K is under martial law….”
Another pointed out that Lone was once described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as his “younger brother”, Para was praised by Union minister Rajnath Singh for “strengthening democracy” and Faesal was “called Kashmir’s role model” after topping the UPSC exam.
An official said the mounting expenses had prompted the jail shift.
The government has already run up a bill for Rs 3 crore at Centaur on account of the detentions. Keeping the politicians there was getting costlier by the day as the arriving winter was driving up the heating bill, the official said.
Temperatures abruptly dipped below freezing point in the Valley this month after a massive snowfall, causing great inconvenience to people in general.
“The government (reportedly) had to pay at least Rs 4,000 per day for a room in Centaur. So, they wanted to cut the expenses,” a family member of one of the detained politicians said.
“We have no idea how warm the MLA Hostel is. It’s possible to know that only after we are allowed to meet them.”
Family members and acquaintances are allowed to meet the jailed politicians twice a week, he said.
The highly secure MLA Hostel had been the nerve centre of political activity in the Valley during the early years of the militancy, whose inception in 1990 had prompted many senior pro-India politicians to flee Kashmir.
On Thursday, former chief minister Mehbooba was moved from the Cheshma Shahi Hut and sub-jail on the Zabarwan Hills to a government facility on Maulana Azad Road in the heart of Srinagar.
Two other jailed former chief ministers, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, remain lodged at their respective “sub-jails”.
Farooq is under house arrest at his Gupkar home while son Omar is at the Hari Nivas guesthouse.
