No water supply, four govt quarters deserted

Rajiv Mahajan
Nurpur, January 1

Four residential quarters of type-two for non-gazetted officers had been built near a government ITI here and inaugurated by local MLA Rakesh Pathania on January 1, but even after a year of the inauguration, all the quarters are vacant.

Inquiries reveal the four quarters had been allotted to employees of different government departments. The monthly nominal fixed rent of these allotted government quarters was being deducted from the salaries of the beneficiaries but none of them had shifted to the quarters so far. Stray cattle have started littering the corridors of the quarters.

The quarters had been built at an estimate cost of Rs 35 lakh and the foundation stone was laid by former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal during the previous BJP regime. During the inauguration, the Irrigation and Public Health Department had given water supply to the newly built quarters from a supply pipeline of the government ITI. Immediately after inauguration, the ITI authorities objected to the diversion of water supply from the supply pipeline. As a result, the department disconnected the supply from these residential quarters.

Nurpur SDM Surinder Thakur admitted that none of the employees had shifted to the government accommodation so far. Ashwani Kumar, president of the Himachal Pradesh Non-Gazetted Officersrsquo; Federation, Nurpur subdivision, said the government quarters might not have be occupied by the employees for want of water supply. He said he would take up the issue of laying a water supply pipeline and water connections in the quarters with the authorities concerned.

Courtesy: Tribune News Service