Perks of the Politicians

There are fewer places more pleasing to live in Delhi than the Lutyens zone, designed and built many of the official buildings during the Raj in the 1930s and 1940s. The zone includes almost 2,000 highly coveted bungalows, overwhelmingly held in state hands. The broad, leafy avenues here are lined with white colonial bungalows featuring porticoes and arches, high ceilings, spacious rooms and forbidding perimeter walls. The quarters for the servants alone are vast and the gardens are the size of public parks.

200 of the bungalows are still occupied by ex-MPs who should have left the residences within a month of the last parliament being dissolved on 25 May. New incoming MPs are keen to grab one of the nicest perks of the job.