AARYAN SHARMA
JAMMU: Politicians cutting across party lines have figured in the recent list of State Estates Department against whom hefty monthly rental bills of subsidised accommodation are still pending.
Despite several reminders these political persons, who continue to enjoy the political clout even after demitting the office have failed to deposit their pending dues.
The popular governments in office headed by successive chief ministers have been regularly allotting the government accommodation to political persons from their discretionary quota and after occupying the same the political persons refuse to pay their monthly rent in majority of cases.
The State Estates Department has recently prepared a comprehensive list of political persons only after receiving directions from the Governor’s administration.
According to sources in the Civil Secretariat a detailed list of political persons occupying the government accommodation have been submitted to Raj Bhawan to get a nod before issuing them the notices to clear their pending dues at the earliest failing which they will be evicted.
According to highly placed sources in the Raj Bhawan, “a total sum of over Rs 44 lakh was pending against political persons including former ministers, MLAs, MLCs belonging to different political parties in Jammu”.
The maximum monthly rent to the tune of Rs 3.49 lakh was pending against the former Congress minister Yogesh Sawhney. He is closely followed by former MLC Mehboob Beigh against whom monthly rent of Rs 2.49 lakh (approximately) was pending. An amount of Rs 2.13 lakh is outstanding against another former MLA Ghulam Mohi-ud-din.
There are more than one dozen former MLAs, MLCs and political persons against whom monthly rent of more than Rs 1 lakh was still pending. They include former MLA R.C Sharma (Rs 1,35,420), Mohd Sharif Bhat (Rs 1,78,720), Gharu Ram Choudhary (Rs 1,77,970), Shiekh Mujib Ali (Rs 1,33,615), B.S Sambyal (Rs 1,145,40), Mohd Shafi (Rs 1,43,240), Mohd Aslam Khan (Rs 1,28,440), Abdul Rehman Turkoo (Rs 1,21,440),Shadi Khan (Rs 1,29,040), Abdul Rashid (Rs 1,20,240), Sheikh Rafiq Ahmad (Rs 1,65,040), Syed Abdul Rashid (Rs 1,65,040), Abdul Rashid Mir (Rs 1,90,540) and Shah Rafiqi (Rs 138099).
Some other prominent politicians namely Panthers Party supremo Prof Bhim Singh, former MLAs and MPs Harsh Dev Singh, Ravinder Sharma, T.S Bajwa, Ajay Sadhotra, Madan Lal Sharma, Sartaj Madni, Jagjivan Lal, Ashwani Kumar, Manohar Lal and Ashok Kumar Sharma also figure in the list of political persons against whom monthly bills were pending.
Senior officials in the State Government claimed in many cases it has been observed that these politicians have constructed their private houses but continue to occupy government accommodation and not paying their regular bills.
