Punjab government probe against officers misusing govt property

Patiala, October 19
Punjab government has decided to initiate disciplinary action against officers misusing government accommodations. Punjab Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon promised a high-level probe into the violations. Dhillon said, guilty officers would be asked to “vacate and pay penal rent”.

Sources confirmed that senior police officers and administrative officers posted in the state had kept more than one official accommodation available for themselves.

Enquiries revealed that two senior IPS officers had retained prime government properties in Patiala for the past many years while another IAS officer had kept a property in the city to himself despite being posted outside Patiala. Another politician had been getting extensions against vacating a property, despite losing the Assembly elections. Estate officers are scared of evicting these officers.

On the other hand, many government employees are running from pillar to post for the past many months to get accommodation.

“As per my entitlement, I had applied for an E type house long time ago but my application is still pending,” claimed one such applicant.

Investigations by The Tribune revealed that many government houses had been wrongly allotted to officers and bureaucrats against government rules.

Dhillon said he would mark a probe by a senior officer into the scam. “The entire list of allotted houses will be scanned and the guilty will have to pay penal rent and will be asked to vacate,” he said, warning officials from his department of meting out favourable treatment to anyone.