Saqib Ahmad
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Nov 8: Draining state exchequer and benefiting hoteliers, the Estates Department spends crores of rupees in "accommodating" the move employees in private hotels, most of them owned by influential persons having contacts with politicians.
Sources said the Estates Department accommodates about 7000 state employees of the civil secretariat in scores of hotels and pays security related expenditure for each employee monthly toward the hotels during their stay in Srinagar and Jammu.
Presently, the Government provides accommodation to 6000 to 7000 Secretariat employees in hotels and guest houses in Srinagar and Jammu for six months each which costs Rs100 crore to the State exchequer.
Ironically, most of these hotels are owned by mainstream politicians.
The Secretariat employees in Srinagar are being provided costly accommodation at hotels and guest houses in Rajbagh, Mehjoor Nagar, Bishembar Nagar, Indira Nagar, while in Jammu most of these hotels and guest houses are located in Gujar Nagar, Tange Wali Gali, Panjtarthi, BC Road and Residency Road.
"We are living in unhygienic conditions in these hotels, food served is substandard, and even some hotels lack proper facilities. We fail to understand why Estates Department wastes such a huge amount to pay to these hoteliers when they could pay less amount to us, and we can find a decent accommodation for us," said a group of employees in the Civil Secretariat, who stay at different guest houses.
Sources said a nexus exists between the higher ups in Estates Department and owners of these hotels and guest houses, who have been siphoning off funds.
"Crores of rupees of the State exchequer are being siphoned off by politicians and Estates officials on the pretext of providing accommodation to employees," sources said, adding, "even political workers and relatives of some politicians are staying in these hotels and guest houses on the State expenses."
Another employee criticized the government for failing to construct its own accommodation for the employees knowing that Darbar Move has been is an inevitable process in the state governance.
The employees said the tourism sector also suffers due to occupying of hotels and guest houses by the Civil Secretariat employees. The employees said the Government has completely failed to create the mechanism and check how crores of rupees of the State are being draining out. |
