Greater Kashmir: Srinagar: Friday, September
07, 2018.
The Estates department that looks after
more than 4,000 official quarters in Srinagar and Jammu has failed to provide
information about outstanding rent with occupants of the estates property, an
RTI application has revealed.
In response to an RTI application filed
by MM Shuja, the department has claimed that the “information asked needs to be
worked out and is voluminous. You may ask for any specific accommodation or
check the record if you wish to do so.”
Shuja had, apart from the outstanding
rent, also sought to know details of accommodation under unauthorised
occupation of political activists, serving and former employees, particulars of
accommodation allotted to persons having threat perceptions and enjoying
security cover, particulars of accommodation allotted to private persons/
mediapersons/journalists and non-state subjects; private houses and hotels
acquired by the Estates department for official purposes with details of
occupants thereof; details and particulars of expenditure incurred by the
department for maintenance, renovation, and furnishing of premises under the
possession of UN office at Sonwar Srinagar and details of the rent outstanding.
In response to the RTI application, the
department has said that, at present, it is providing accommodation to more
than 180 persons including political activists, serving and former employees,
journalists and other individuals.
36 political activists and former legislators,
the RTI states, are occupying the government accommodation. Of these, 15 cases
are sub-judice. Also, 46 MLAs and 12 MLCs have been provided accommodation by
the department.
The RTI states that seven persons have
been unauthorizedly occupying the estates property. Of these, the department
has been successful in evicting one. The highest number of 75 quarters
belonging to the Estates department has been provided to the media persons, and
seven quarters to “private persons.”
About accommodation to persons having
threat perception and enjoying security cover, the department has said that the
information can be had from security wing of the J&K police.