Jammu Municipal Corporation is supposed to provide accommodation to the officers who are posted to it from other departments. Consequently, the Corporation has built bungalows for this purpose. However, strangely the bungalows are not allotted to the deserving officers but to persons unknown to the Corporation. They are politically influential persons who can make it possible for them to enjoy any facility that they can grab from anywhere. In reply to an application submitted under the RTI, the Corporation said that it is the duty of the Jammu Municipal Corporation to provide accommodation to the officers on deputation from other departments and for this purpose Municipal Corporation had constructed four bungalows in Krishna Nagar area. However, these bungalows have been allotted to private persons for unknown reasons,
This indicates that the Municipal Corporation has no powers and authority to allot the bungalows to the officers sent on deputation but some other authority exercises the powers of making allotment. The Corporation cannot raise the question of to whom the Government accommodation is allotted. This is very confusing and means abuse of power.
We are also amused to know that the rent of the official accommodation has not been raised for so many years despite the spiraling cost of living and manifold increase in the price of properties. Although the dearness allowance given by the Government to its employees has been increased many times, yet the rent of the Government accommodation has not been increased. This causes losses to the state exchequer and even the flats and other accommodation cannot find proper repair and maintenance owing to decreased income from rent.
There seems lot of interference from outside agencies in the functioning and powers of the Municipal Corporation of Jammu. We want that the Corporation should have real independent existence and identity and it should not be made subservient to the diktats of other agencies in the State as that would mean negation of democratic dispensation. The real problem facing the Corporation at least in the area of allotment of official accommodation is the lack of rules of allotment. Whether the rules have not been framed willfully or whether this is a negligence one cannot say. But absence of rules encourages the outsiders to use their influence and make the Corporation yield to the diktat of influential persons or officers. Therefore, we would advise the Corporation to take immediate step towards framing the rules of allotment and then strictly adhere to them. This will make the pressures of influential people ineffective.
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