Resentment among govt staff over flat allotment

patna: the allotment of flats to 16 officials of the bihar legislative assembly, two officials of the bihar legislative council and a lecturer of j d women's college here from the central pool by the building construction department (bcd) on july 30 has caused a lot of resentment among the state government employees waiting for the housing facility for the last several months.although the central pool flats are meant for state government employees only, 19 of the 124 such flats allotted on july 30 by the bcd went to those who are not state government employees. bcd secretary a k sinha, however, justified the allotment of central pool flats to the assembly and council employees, saying this has been done in the light of the assurance given by the government to one of the two houses of the state legislature more than three years ago. sinha said the government had assured the house that it would continue to allot flats from the central pool to assembly and council officials till the creation of a separate pool for them. the government had also assured the house that assembly and council employees would not be evicted from the houses allotted to them from the central pool in the past, he maintained. but what has surprised the government employees most is the allotment of a new central pool flat to a commissioner-rank official's wife, tejeshwari lal, a lecturer at j d women's college which is a constituent unit of magadh university. tejeshwari does not live with her husband. sinha said the bcd has simply given a fresh accommodation to tejeshwari, who had been allotted a flat in the officers' hostel on bailey road a few years ago on compassionate ground. the government has now allotted her a bigger flat, he added. bcd minister mohammad taslimuddin, who is the chairman of the departmental allotment committee, did not appear to be happy with the allotment of central pool flats to several officials of the assembly and council. this is not proper, he said. he also did not approve of the fresh accommodation given to tejeshwari. he said he did not have the time to look into the names of all the allottees at the committee meeting. the mistakes, if any, would be rectified, he added. bcd sources said a large number of government flats, several of them in the officers' hostel, are under unauthorised occupation of the people having strong political connections. although the government has evicted more than 100 such unauthorised occupants during the last few months, about 100 flats are still under unauthorised occupation in patna. sinha said the government has initiated measures to evict these people. the allotment of central pool flats from the discretionary quota of the bcd minister has also created anomaly. while a statistical officer of jagjivan ram research institute here has succeeded in getting a central pool flat from the minister's quota, director of the institute abdul malik has been denied one despite his being a former minister. the minister's quota constitutes 5 per cent of the total number of central pool flats allotted at a time.