State govt to restrict home largesse to babus

Taking a leaf from lessons learnt from the Adarsh scam, the Maharashtra state government has decided to come up with a rule, where bureaucrats will be allowed to own only one flat in government housing schemes in the state.

Taking a leaf from lessons learnt from the Adarsh scam, the Maharashtra state government has decided to come up with a rule, where bureaucrats will be allowed to own only one flat in government housing schemes in the state.

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This is a deviation from the existing rules that allows them to own one flat in one district. So, a bureaucrat owning a flat in Mumbai can own another flat in Thane or Navi Mumbai since it falls in a separate districts as per current rules.

Revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat in a reply to the legislative council on Friday made the announcement.

“We are now working out a new law where the government will allow a bureaucrat to own only one flat in the state, bought through concessional schemes,” Thorat said replying to a question raised by opposition leader Vinod Tawde.

Tawde while talking on the deteriorating state of industries and misuse of land use in Maharashtra had questioned Thorat if the government will be putting any breaks on rules relating to flats owned by bureaucrats which are misused to a great extent.

“There are cases where they own 3-4 flats, all at concessional rates and many are on names of spouses and children. Will the government take these back,” Tawde questioned saying it is a land grab of sorts.

In the current rule book, when any bureaucrat or politician applies for a house, he has to submit an application which contains an affidavit that declares that he does not own a house in the same district under a government scheme. The government will also be restricting on allotting houses to relatives of bureaucrats.

Officials found faulting in the Adarsh case, whose kin are members of Adarsh, are known to have flats in other government societies on prime plots which they have leased out and are earning a hefty rent, while they continue to occupy government allotted houses.

“This is the typical modus operandi which forced the government to take this decision,” Thorat said while talking to Hindustan Times.