Party offices to quit Delhi's colonial heritage zone

The Supreme Court this year ordered the parties, including the ruling Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to vacate the sprawling colonial complexes in the heart of the capital.

The court asked the government to allot land for new party offices away from the preservation area.

The cabinet agreed for land to be allotted to the parties, who have three years to move out of their official bungalows, designed by Sir Edward Lutyens.

"This exercise (of alloting land) is to be completed in three years," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

He said all national parties recognised by the election commission and which have more than seven members will be given subsidised plots. The area would be proportionate to the party's strength in parliament.

But the parties said the cabinet decision was discriminatory.

"In a democracy, the numbers keep changing. Probably the Congress took the decision in anticipation of its future," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a dig at the ruling party.

"I think it is not fair," said Abani Roy of the left-leaning Revolutionary Socialist Party.

The London-born Lutyens spent 20 years working on "imperial" New Delhi, which replaced Calcutta, now Kolkata, as the Indian capital in 1912.

The architect designed the imposing Viceroy's palace which now serves as the official residence of the Indian president, the circular parliament and government buildings and the capital's sandstone war memorial, India Gate.