Two held for renting govt flats to public

The CBI said it had arrested two officials from the Directorate of Estates, the body responsible for managing residential accommodations of government employees, on Saturday, reports Manish Pachouly.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has unearthed a multi-crore racket involving the allotment of central government flats in localities such as Wadala, Antop Hill, Ghatkopar and Belapur, to people who don’t work for the government.

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The CBI on Monday said it had arrested two officials from the Directorate of Estates, the body responsible for managing residential accommodations of government employees, on Saturday.

The investigating agency has found that at least 100 of the 1,000 government flats it checked have been rented out illegally to outsiders. The city has 8,500 central government accommodations.

In Mumbai, 449 government employees are on the waiting list for official accommodation — many have been waiting for as long as three years.

According to estimates, these officials made over Rs one crore in 2008 by renting the 100 flats.

The CBI suspects that at least 500 flats must have been given on rent illegally. The government officials were working in collaboration with two police constables, who would threaten tenants and collect bribe.