NEW DELHI, June 24: Senior bureaucrats, doctors in government hospitals and the personal staff of some powerful ministers in the Narasimha Rao regime are among the 1,703 beneficiaries of the ordinance to regularise out-of-turn allotment of government houses.Although the bulk of the beneficiaries - 1,303 - are section officers and senior assistants occupying Type III houses, the inclusion of high-ranking government officials on the eviction list ensured that the case was given sympathetic treatment at the top level. The result was the ordinance that was promulgated on Sunday - the last date set by the Supreme Court for eviction.Sources said that the out-of-turn allottees had also organised themselves well, to the extent of collecting a substantial fund to fight the case in court. As many as 35 review petitions were filed in the Supreme Court but all of them were dismissed. There are also a few mediapersons from Doordarshan and All India Radio - including a deputy director-general of DD and a Deputy Inspector-General from the Central Bureau of Investigation - among the beneficiaries. More than 30 officers hold ranks such as joint secretary, deputy secretary and director. Members of the personal staff of former Union ministers Sukh Ram, Jaffer Sharief, Col Ram Singh and Madhavrao Scindia have also escaped eviction by the skin of their teeth. The following is the break-up of beneficiaries according to the category of housing they are occupying : 1,303 (Type III), 267 (Type IV), 97 (Type V), 2 (Type VI) and 34 (government hostels). According to sources, there were several top government officials who were on the eviction list prepared by the committee which was set up by the Supreme Court. But they were exempted because their turn fortuitously came up by the time the committee held its last meeting and the Supreme Court agreed that they should be allowed to stay on. All is not rosy, however, for the beneficiaries. Many will have to shell out a hefty penal rent with arrears accruing from January 1991.
