Jammu, Nov 07:  Depite aware of the fact that State government paying millions of rupees as rent to hotels and private houses as rent for providing accomodation to senior bureaucrats and other Darbar move government officers, the political Bigwigs including MLAs and MLCs refuse to vacate atleast  62 government accomodations occupied by them without any entitlement.

These Bigwigs politicians occupying multiple accomodations   belongs to all political parties including Bhartiya Janta Party, Congress, National  Conference, Peoples Democratic Party and even Independent Legislatures.

The shocking revelation have come to fore through an RTI application filed by S Balvinder Singh.

Today while sharing the details of the information received from Estate department, RTI Activist  Balvinder Singh along with other Activist Sh. Deepak Sharma,  shared the names of all politicians who are occupying multiple accomodations without any entitlements.

While expressing deep shock and pain over such siphoning of government resources by the politicians,  Singh said   that parties and politicians who came to power on the slogan of transparency and accountability and always talk about morality in politics, their  legislatures also  enjoying multiple accommodation in the twin capital cities of the State in violation of the rules.

He informed that  18 legislatures of PDP, 13 of  BJP, 13 of INC, 13 of JKNC  and some other independent Legislatures are enjoying multiple accommodation in  twin capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar.

 Earler this issue of multiple accommodation was also underlined by Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its report tabled in the State legislature last year but no concrete action or decision was taken on it.

In  the CAG report J & K  Estates Department was blamed for not following policy guidelines and rules  in allotment of government accommodation especially to political bosses. In the report it's also been reported in the report that non adherence to prescribed allotment norms or policy for accommodation in private hired hotels has resulted in avoidable extra-expenditure to the tune of Rs.19.02 crores during the period between 2010-11 to 2014-15 and also non-eviction of  unauthorised occupants resulted in avoidable expenditure of Rs. 13.95 crore for hiring of private hotels and houses.

The State accountability Commission has taken suo-moto cognizance of the revelations of the CAG report and accordingly initiated the proceedings.

As per the RTI reply  44 MLAs who are enjoying multiple accommodation both from Estates Department and MLA’s Hostel in the capital cities include : 1. Mr Raja Manzoor Ahmad  (PDP), 2. Mr Bashir Ahmad Dar (JKPC), 3. Er. Rashid Sheikh (Ind), 4. Mr Mohammad Shafi (NC), 5. Haji Abdul Rashid Dar (INC), 6.  Mr. Usman Abdul Majid (INC), 7. Mr. Mohd. Akbar Lone (JKNC), 8. Mr. Mohd. Abass Wani (PDP), 9. Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar (JKNC), 10. Mr Abid Hussain Ansari (PDP), 11. Mr. Mubarak Gul (NC), 12. Ms. Shamima Firdous (JKN), 13. Mr Noor Mohd Sheikh (PDP) Now stands Vacated,  14. Aga Syed Rahullah Mehdi (NC), 15. Mr. Mohd Khalil Band (PDP), 16. Mr. Aijaz Ahmad Mir (PDP), 17. Mr. Mohd Yusaf Bhat (PDP),  18. Mr Mohd. Yousaf Tarigami (CPI-M), 19. Mr Abdul Majid Larmi (NC), 20.  Mr. Abdul Rahim Rather (PDP), 21. Mr. Gulzar Ahmad Wani (INC), 22.Mr. Altaf Ahmad Wani (NC), 23. Mr. Deldan Namgyal (JKNC), 24. Mr Asgar Ali Karbalia (INC), 25. Syed Mohd. Baqir Rizvi (Ind), 26. Mr. G.M Saroori (INC), 27. Mr Sat Paul Sharma (BJP), 28. Mr. Daleep Singh Parihar (BJP), 29. Mr Neelam Kumar Langeh (BJP), 30. Mr Randhir Singh Pathania (BJP), 31. Dr. Devinder Kumar Manyal (BJP), 32. DR Gagan Bhagat (BJP), 33. Mr. Rajeev Sharma (BJP), 34. Mr Ravinder Raina (BJP), 35. Mr Vikar Rasool Wani (INC), 36. Mr. Mumtaz Ahmad Khan (INC), 37. Mr. Aijaz Ahmad Khan (INC), 38. Mr Kamal Verma Arora (NC), 39. Ch. Qamar Hussain (PDP), 40. Ch. Mohd. Akram (INC), 41. Mr Javed Ahmad Rana (NC), 42. Mr. Shah Mohd. Tantray (PDP), 43. Mr. Mohd Ashraf Mir (PDP), 44. Mrs. Anjum Fazli (PDP).

Former MLA and incumbent MP Jugal Kishore Sharma of  BJP also enjoy multiple accomodations.   

The MLCs  enjoying multiple accommodation in the twin capital cities include  2. S. Charanjit Singh Khalsa (BJP), 3. Mr. Sofi Mohd YUsaf (BJP), 4. Mr Surinder Mohan Ambardar (BJP), 5. Mr. Vibod Gupta (BJP), 6. Mr. Showkat Hussain Ganai (NC), 7. Ms. Rani Bloria (INC), 8. Mr Ali Mohd. Dar (NC), 9. Mr Yasir Reshi (PDP), 10. Mr. Zafar Iqbal Manhas (PDP), 11. Mr. Saif-ud-din Bhat (PDP), 12. Mr. Mohd Muzaffar Parray (INC), 13.Mr. Sham Lal Bhagat (INC), 14. Mr. Gulam Nabi Monga (INC), 15. Mr. Firdous Tak (PDP), 16. Mr. Sajad Ahmad Kitchloo (NC), 17. Mr. Surinder Kumar Choudhary (PDP), 18.Mr. Mohd. Khurshid Alam (PDP).             

It is pertinent to mention here that most of these 62 legislators have held either 4 accommodation both 2 each in  Srinagar and 2 in Jammu while others held 3 accomodations individually.               

Activists  urged upon all these legislatures to who have multiple accommodation to gracefully vacate the multiple allotments and retain only such accomodations for which they are entitled.            \

Singh further said that  legislatures are the role models for the society . Their life style should inspire the general public who elected them. There may be  many ways for ensuring probity in public life, but a self-discipling mechanism, appears to be the best in an institution like Parliament & State Assemblies.

Others who were present in the press conference are Ayaz Ahmad Khan, Mahesh Kotwal & S. Manmohan Singh