Five booked for sub-letting government quarters

“Based on a tip-off,we learnt that these five officials who stay in Type 5 accommodation in Ghatkopar’s CGS Colony rented out their servant quarters to private individuals and families. Type 5 accommodation is allotted to Class I officials and consists of a hall,three bedrooms,a kitchen,a lobby/dining hall and a small servant quarter which has an attached bathroom and small alcove for a kitchen. The officials sub-let the servant quarter for a stipulated sum of rent and they themselves and their family stayed in the main flat,” said ACB,CBI Superintendent of Police,Abhin Modak.

“The tenants are private individuals who have good jobs in the quarters or small nuclear families who stay in small servants quarters. The rent for a Type 1,2 or 3 would start from Rs 4,500 and increase depending on the size of the quarter,” he added.

Besides verifying who all stayed at the quarters the investigating officials have also sought the bank balance details of the officials. “We also found that an official in the Patents Department has a hefty bank balance. After deriving an estimate of his current bank balance from the bank we learnt that he has around 30.6 lakh collectively deposited in three accounts,fixed deposits worth Rs 3 lakh,gold and diamond ornaments estimated to be worth Rs 1.88 lakh,a flat in Chennai,three plots in Andhra Pradesh and shares worth around Rs 4 lakh. The possibility of him having disproportionate assets is also being investigated,” said an official.

After registering the cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act,the officials had conducted surprise checks at the flats and confirmed that the servant quarters had been sub-let to both families and individuals who paid rent to the Government officials.

“When it comes to sub-letting,the demand for Type 1,2 and 3 quarters are more as compared to Type 5 as the former are plenty in number. Sub-letting is of two types; total and partial. Type 1,2 and 3 quarters are entirely sub-let to a tenant for a sizeable rent and the official who has been allotted the flat doesn’t live there. Type 5 quarters are usually partially sub-let with the officials choosing to sub-let the servant quarters while they continue to stay in the flat,” the official said.

In Antop Hill,the officials checked around 5,200 quarters till Monday morning and found that there are 139 sub-letting cases among them. While 139 quarters have been entirely sub-let,32 have been partially sub-let. In Belapur,1,018 quarters have been checked so far with eight quarters having been entirely sub-let,and 12 partially sub-let. In Belapur,15 shops have been allotted to officials,of which six have been sub-let. Forty quarters couldn’t be checked as they were locked.

A total of 8,500 government quarters exist across the city of which the officials have checked 6,300,most of them in Antop Hill and Belapur areas. Over 600 quarters were found locked.

“While we are continuing to check the quarters,we will also be sending notices to those departments whose officials have been found sub-letting their quarters or renting out rooms in their quarters to earn rent,” said Modak.