LMA drive spots commercial activities in servant quarters of Officers’ Mess

The LMA is learnt to have given a deadline of December 31 to get new passes made.

The families claimed that the Army authorities “suddenly stopped issuing entry passes to them and have given a deadline of December 31 to get new passes made”.

They alleged that the Army had also been cancelling the passes of individuals who had crossed the age of 18,while refusing to issue new passes to those whose passes had expired. The residents claimed to have been occupying the quarters for over 60 years.

The LMA,however,has a different version to narrate.

In a detailed reply to the queries posed by Newsline,the LMA said: “A drive was carried out to regularise the passes and it was found that some of them do not have police verification and that most of the servants staying were carrying out commercial activities in the quarters illegally and were not employed by any institute/officer.”

While making it clear that servant passes were not being denied to anybody,the reply said: “There is no restriction imposed by the LMA for children above 18 years of age to stay with their parents in servant quarters. However,it has been observed that the occupants are staying in unhygienic conditions in one-room quarters with their children and grandchildren. Ideally,only wife and husband with next of kin should stay in the servant quarters,or else living conditions will become unhealthy and civic hazards will arise.”

It added: “Police verification of some servants has never been carried out. Thus,during a surprise check,it came to notice that many of them are residing in servant quarters without proper passes/ verification.”

The residents,however,claimed that the LMA,which annually renewed the entry passes till 2006-07,suddenly stopped doing so.

“We also approached Defence Minister A K Antony in 2008 though a local MLA,who acknowledged the receipt of the letter and promised to look into the matter,” said Santosh Chavan,one of the residents.