Union Cabinet has brought about amendment in the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971, which will now give powers to officials to evict people from accommodation meant for Central Government official within three days of their overstay, provided they are not satisfied with their appeal for extension. The point is that it was felt that existing laws in this context were faulty and the occupants usually took the benefit of flawed laws and obtained stay orders from the court. At least 70 stay cases are pending with the court. The amendment of the Act approved by the Union Cabinet empowers concerned authorities to throw out the occupant within three days because the amended rules do not allow any space for any ambiguity and chances of approaching the court for stay will next to nil. The amendment also stipulates that in case an occupant wants to approach the court of law he will have to approach only the High Court and not any lower court will have the jurisdiction of hearing the petition.
We highly appreciate this step as it will increase chances of getting Government accommodation for those who are on the waiting list. We wish that an identical order should also be introduced in the State where as per available information a large number of Government quarters continue to be under the occupation of retired officials just because they can manage it through clandestine ways. At the same time it is also known that many retired Ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats using their political clout have not even paid services charges like electric fee and water charges for many years and the arrears of which run in to lakhs. Estates Department should take cognizance of such cases and invoke existing rules to recover arrears from them, evict them and also manage to charge the fine in the shape of interest on delayed payment of service charges.
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