Faced with the shortage of Government accommodations and unauthorised influential occupants aggravating the problem, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved changes in a law that empowers an estate officer to fasttrack eviction of Ministers, MPs and bureaucrats overstaying in Government-allotted residences long after they cease to hold official positions.
According to sources, such people, including Ministers, MPs and Government officers, usually take the benefit of law to make possible their stay even after they no longer hold official positions. People who overstay in official accommodations used to take recourse to courts.
The beneficiaries include the employees of the Central Government offices who are eligible for General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) and are waiting for the maturity of their turn.
Currently, the eviction proceedings take unusually long time of five to seven week, thereby reducing the availability of Government accommodations to new incumbents.
It may take another four-week time if the unauthorised occupants file appeal which is disposed of by the Appellate Officer within 30 days. However, eviction proceedings take much longer period than the timeline prescribed in the Act. Sometimes it takes years to evict the unauthorised occupants.
Recently, the Delhi High Court had issued eviction order to former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s estranged wife Payal from the 7, Akbar Road bungalow. The family had been living in the Type VIII bungalow belonging to the J&K Government for 17 years. When the couple separated in 2011, Abdullah moved out, but his wife and two sons continued to live there.
Former Home Minister Buta Singh and Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Vir Bhadra Singh too moved the Court against their eviction from Government bungalows in Delhi while former Ministers Ambika Soni and Kumari Selja were evicted from their bungalows after the Delhi High Court order.
Officials said there is shortage of accommodations of almost all types in Delhi and at other stations where the eligible employees have to wait for years for maturity of their turns in the waiting list.
Besides a large number of eligible officers are residing in accommodations much below their entitlement and
unauthoriaed occupants are overstaying in General Pool residential accommodations creating additional and unwarranted burden on the general pool residential accommodations.
An estate officer, as per the new rules, will not need to
follow “elaborate procedures” and can even make an order for the eviction of such persons
forthwith following the procedure proposed in the amendments.
“Thus now, the estate officer can make such enquiry as he deems expedient in the circumstances of the case and thus do not have to follow the elaborate procedures prescribed as per Sections 4, 5 and 7 of the Act.
Estate Officers can even make an order for the eviction of such persons forthwith following the procedure proposed in the new section. “If such
persons refuse or fail to
comply with the said order of eviction, Estate Officer may evict them from premises and take possession thereof and may, for that purpose, use such force as may be necessary,” said the officials.
The Cabinet has approved amendments in Section 2 and Section 3 of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971 (PPE Act, 1971), by inserting definition of
‘residential accommodation occupation’ in a new clause in section 2 of the Act and
inserting provisions relating to eviction from ‘residential accommodation occupation’ in a new sub-section 3B below sub-section 3A of Section 3 of the Act.