Even as the Punjab and Haryana High Court is seized of the case pertaining to allotment of government police quarters, the police department has started allotting government accommodation through e-awas portal.
While the process is meant to “minimise human intervention”, it has enabled even newly recruited police personnel to get houses on the basis of their choice and availability.
The police started working on the e-awas portal in June 2022. The total strength of Chandigarh Police is around 6,660 police personnel. There are around 2,528 police quarters situated in at least 11 police colonies in Chandigarh. The police government houses were divided into five types. Type V quarters are meant for IPS rank officers and DSPs with five years of experience in service. Type 1 houses are for the constable rank personnel.
SP (headquarters) Manoj Kumar Meena said, “The idea behind bringing the allotment process on e-awas is to minimise the human intervention, favouritism and to boost first-come-first-serve concept. The applicant is given many options, including which floor house he/she prefers, in which colony he/she likes to have quarter. And the allotment of the houses is done according to his/her seniority on the list of applicants with the particular choices. It has eased the house allotment process.”
A committee, headed by an Inspector General-rank officer, was constituted for reviewing the applications seeking out-of-turn accommodations. The DGP, Chandigarh Police, has discretionary powers to allot quarters out of turn to genuine applicants. The new committee examined these applications before putting them before the DGP.
A total of 336 newly constructed houses inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in March this year have eased the pendency of applications for the government police quarters. After allotting the houses through the e-awas portal, the latest recruited police personnel who joined in 2019 have got government accommodation.
The house allotment scam pertaining to the out-of-turn allotment of government houses to at least 198 police personnel between June 2018 and August 2020 is pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The next date of hearing is February 1, 2023.