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| Waiting list for Govt accommodation at Srinagar remains stagnant since 2013 | | Power packed' recommendation, not seniority works with Estates Deptt | | 'Money too paves way for allotments at the earliest'
Early Times Report
Jammu, May 19: Estates Department in J&K which has remained in controversies and in news for all the wrong reasons has one more dubious distinction - the waiting list for government accommodation to employees and senior officials at Srinagar is stagnant for years. Even its own website which was launched three years back shows not a single change in the status of names, many of whom are waiting to get accommodation for as long period as 15-20 years, thanks to department's self - evolved system of making allotments which merits only influence of power corridors and at times money too.
Sources said notwithstanding the commitment of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed under whom this department functions, to have transparency and accountability in his regime, the modus operandi of allotting government accommodation by authorities at helm in the Estates Department has not changed a bit and remains same as it was during erstwhile coalition government. The stagnant status of waiting list of employees in no way means that accommodation is not available or has not been made over the years, said the sources from within the Department while explaining how things move swiftly and plush accommodation is provided overnight and sometimes within few hours, depending upon the 'recommendation' and the power corridor from where it comes.
Sources said no amount of seniority of the official works nor is any consideration given to number of years employees have been waiting to get what is actually entitled to them under the rules. The authorities throw these norms and rules to winds even while providing accommodation to seniormost officers when it comes to out of turn allotments, said the sources adding that no criteria is fixed for the type of accommodation in terms of number of rooms employee is entitled to. "If the recommendation comes from most powerful minister, the employee not only gets accommodation in no time but gets everything in plenty in terms of facilities- much spacious and equipped with luxurious items and gadgetries.
The waiting list on display of its website has some employees who are waiting to get accommodation for two decades. Many of them first submitted their applications in the year 2005 followed in the same pattern in 2008. In 2013 during NC-Congress regime when Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister headed this Department, the employees were asked to apply afresh which they did but nothing happened in regular course, said one of the senior most officer in civil secretariat. A few officers and a couple of junior level employees did manage to get allotment of residential flats but only after greasing palms of authorities at the helm, the officer alleged, explain how things have worked in Estates Department under the nose of the Chief Ministers over these years. Ironically, those of few who have managed to clinch either through 'powerful' letters of recommendations from ministers or by paying money, still continue to be in the waiting list on the website for
reasons best known to authorities. While recommendations from all ministers works in making allotments, the Director of the Estates Department obliges in no time if it comes from Chief Minister's Office and influential bureaucrats who work in highest echelons of administration, sources said adding that it has happened so even in cases of simple political activists and class four employees as well.
Brazen irregularities are also happening in making repairs and renovations of special cases of political influence, said sources adding that works worth lakhs of rupees are given to contractors without proper tendering process. All that the authorities do in a bid to save their skin is tagging the works as 'most urgent…. Emergency requirement'. No enquiry has ever been initiated into what insiders see as huge wasteful expenditure nor any effort has been made by any agency to order investigation onto irregularities reported in the past. With Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at the helm, will this 'modus operandi' change and will bonafide beneficiaries who have waiting for years get some justice ..? |
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