Bihar cabinet decides to provide rented accommodation to all women staff in govt

Under the scheme, the state government will take on lease residential accommodation from private parties and builders for a certain period and offer the premises to the women staff.

Around four lakh women employees of the Bihar government will soon be getting residential accommodation near their place of posting, the state cabinet said on Tuesday.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar inspecting under construction officers’ enclave in Patna. (Santosh Kumar/ HT Photo)

The decision, taken during a cabinet meeting led by chief minister Nitish Kumar, was among 22 proposals of various departments that received the nod, additional chief secretary (cabinet) S Siddharth said after the meeting.

“The new scheme envisages the same facilities for all women staff, working from panchayat-level office to the state secretariat,” Siddharth said.

Under the scheme, the state government will take on lease residential accommodation from private parties and builders for a certain period and offer the premises to the women staff — from panchayat to the secretariat level — to live free of cost. Some officials said the decision was mainly taken to woo women employees ahead of the assembly elections later this year.

The government will set up a five-member committee, headed by district magistrates (DMs), to identify private houses in each district and take them on lease.

“If women employees face any problems related to accommodations, the concerned sub-divisional officers (SDOs) will resolve it. The benefit of this government scheme will reach 3.5-4 lakh women employees working in the state government, including about 25,000 women in the state police force.

A similar proposal was mooted by the education department in 2023 to provide rented accommodation to teachers, posted in remote areas, near their schools. However, the proposal did not get the government’s nod, and now, as most of the teachers have been posted near their native places, they prefer taking house rent allowances (HRA) instead of residing in the rented accommodations.

In another important decision on Tuesday, the cabinet approved the creation of 8,414 new posts, including 8,093 lower class clerks, in more than 8,000 panchayats of the state. The cabinet has also approved the decision to open a mega skill centre at a cost of ₹281 crore to train 21,600 youths.

The state cabinet also approved 36 new posts for the establishment of a sports injury unit in Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan Orthopedic Hospital, Patna. Apart from this, 267 other posts have also been created in the same hospital.