Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Patil comes up with his views on IPS officers who occupy govt quarters' that was published in Newsband

Patil comes up with his views on IPS officers who occupy govt quarters

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: It was found that 19 IPS officers, living in official quarters were also owning government quota flats in or near Thane and Navi Mumbai. This information was provided by Home Minister R R Patil at the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

Patil didn’t find anything wrong in this since, according to him, an IPS officer is eligible to reside in government quarters in Mumbai even if he has a government-quota flat in Mumbai suburbs, Thane or Navi Mumbai.

A government resolution (GR) issued by general administration department (GAD) facilitates the officers to occupy government quarters despite owning a flat in another district.

The minister agreed that no officer can possess more than one flat from government quota. He promised to find out whether any officer was violating this rule. He said that he will investigate whether any officer had more than one government flat and whether they were renting them to others. 

The issue was raised by Shiv Sena legislators Sanjay Gawande, Subhash Desai, Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse and BJP legislator Devendra Fadnavis.

There was a demand for scrapping of the GR. There was also a complaint raised that retired officers don't vacate government quarters.

But Patil replied that in such a case, after completion of three months of retirement, the concerned officers have been charged rent along with heavy penalty.