Odisha govt officials illegally occupy 445 quarters in Bhubaneswar !

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jan 14, 2015 at 10:27 PM

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Jan 14:

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Odisha government executives and officials have illegally occupied 445 quarters in Bhubaneswar causing a loss of Rs 6.79 Crs to state exchequer, as per the information obtained through the RTI.

The list of officials illegally occupying government quarters includes current ministers, MLAs, ex-ministers, ex-MLAs, government employees, ex-employees and even peons in Bhubaneswar.

Also, the pending bill of nearly Rs 7 crores against illegal occupants is calculated as per government rate. If it is calculated as per market price (rent of the quarters) with interest, it will easily be more than Rs. 20 crores, said Pradip Pradhan, the RTI activist who filed the application.

It may be noted that, Odisha High Court, while hearing a PIL case {W.P. (C) (PIL) No. 10537 of 2013}, filed on May 2, 2013 by Pradhan, had directed the Odisha government on December 11, 2013 to submit a report on steps taken to vacate the quarters illegally occupied by retired government officials including IAS officers, former MLAs, former Ministers, MPs in Bhubaneswar within four weeks.

However, the state government never produced the report to the court.

Pradhan filed an RTI application to the PIO, Deartment of General Administration (GA) on November 26, 2014 seeking the names of officials in Bhubaneswar and details of peal rent or any rent pending against them, name of officials occupying two quarters in Bhubaneswar and names of the officials who have already returned the quarters and amount deposited against the rent.

Replying to the RTI, the PIO released a list that includes ministers such as Arun Kumar Sahoo, Jogendra Behera, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi, Deputy Speaker of assembly Sananda Marandi, Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra etc.

The reply further stated that a total of 64 government quarters have been vacated by illegal occupants like MLAs, ex-ministers, ex-MLAs, government employees, ex-governemnt employees with recovery of Rs. 26, 28, 634.