Congress leader and former Biramitrapur MLA George Tirkey has alleged that the State Government was conspiring to shut down the Divisional Office of the Housing Board from Rourkela.
That is why the vacant posts are not being filled up for years together and the office has now become a sign board organisation here.
As the scarcity of residential houses and plots is on a peak but since last two decades, no such project is undertaken by the Government in Rourkela, alleged Tirkey. Similarly, the allottees are harassed in the plea of selling the adjacent plot, he charged.
Former Rourkela DCC President Biren Senapaty said in 1975 the Divisional Office of Housing Board was opened in Rourkela.
The functional area of the office was Sundargarh, undivided Sambalpur and Bolangir district. After Bhubaneswar office this Rourkela office was the second biggest unit biggest unit of the State and it was giving huge revenue to the organisation.
But surprisingly while for Rourkela Divisional office the number of sanctioned posts are 28, only 12 employees are engaged now.
Many important posts like Assistant Executive Engineer, Assistant Administrative Officer, Divisional Account Officer are also lying vacant. While in the State Housing Board office about 10 Assistant Administrative Officers are engaged but surprisingly not a single is posted in Rourkela, he told.
For this the allottees are facing a lot of problems. Earlier the Divisional Executive Engineer was authorized to forward the files for issuing the allotment orders, freehold certificates, no objection certificates, land less certificates and transfer of houses.