40 to face action for subletting govt houses

Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 17

Over 40 employees will face disciplinary action as the house allotment committee of the UT Administration has detected cases of subletting in a door-to-door survey.

Sources said the committee had completed the survey in Sector 22 and 23 and submitted a report to the higher authorities. Teams comprising officers of the Engineering Department conducted the survey during the past one month during which the credentials of the employees were checked.

A senior officer said besides checking the credentials of the employees, they also checked unallotted houses “lying abandoned for years”. The subletting of a house by an allottee is an offence under Rule SR-317-AM-19 of the House Allotment Rules and the violator is liable to be punished as per the provisions of the Rule. An officer said the allottee would also be liable to pay penal rent, 50 times the normal rent. The violators will also be debarred from the allotment of any government house in the future.

Recently, the House Allotment Rules were amended to make subletting/misuse of government residences a criminal offence. The police will also be asked to register an FIR against the unauthorised occupants and the allottees under Section 188 of the IPC and under the CrPC.

The survey was started on September 1 and the Aadhaar card, e-mail address, date of birth, present designation and place of posting were checked to ascertain the authenticity of the allottees. The survey of Sector 22 and 23 has been completed and now the teams are conducted a survey of houses in Sector 20.