Uproar over allotment of govt flats in Salt Lake

calcutta: the anomalies in allotment of west bengal government flats have created an uproar amongst the residents of seven government housing estates at salt lake. in the first annual general meeting of the newly formed, ''forum for government housing allottees, salt lake'', the members of 2,293 flats of these housing estates, resented the government policy of allotment of flats and getting them vacated after the retirement of the employees.forum president nilanjan mallick said the earlier decision was that the flats in the government housing estates at salt lake - bichitra, shyamali, falguni, shrabani and baishakhi - would he handed over to the tenants after the expenditure for construction was realized in the form of rent. but nothing had since been done, residents allege. the meeting put the blame on the ''west bengal government premises occupancy (regulation) act 1984, which reduced the status of the tenants to that of allotees. forum member mrinal chatterjee said, "this act allowed the government to cancel the allotment of flats to the government employees on their whims". he said, "the rights that the government employees used to enjoy over their flats were taken away at the stroke of a pen". of the three types of government rental flats, the cit buildings and the open tenancy buildings were decided to be sold by the government to the publoic, but the rental housing estates are exclusively for state government employees. but, according to mallick the government itself is flouting the laws by allowing outsiders to occupy the flats specified under the ''rental'' category. mallick said, "the outsiders, through legal loopholes, are enjoying the flats for ever, paying only rs 384 per month as per assessed rent, while the government employees are liable to pay rs 2,000 as rent, per month and will also be subjected to forceful eviction after retirement. the members of the forum told toins that in salt lake of the seven government housing estates, 330 flats still remains unalloted and almost 200 flats are occupied illegally . "our demand to the urban development department, is only to intiate a amendment in the existing legal frame in order to bring a parity in the allotment of the flats and to restrain the government from evicting the age old retired employees," said mrinal chatterjee. the dias suggested that eviction is not the solution for artificial crisis of government flats. the only way out is to construct new flats in and around salt lake, the new abode of government offices. commenting on the issue ananda ghosh hazra, the chief of public relations of the urban development department told toins,"i shall not deny the reality of the problem but as the point raised by the ''forum for government housing allottees salt lake''pertains to amendment of an act, it will be unlikely for me to make any comment on that".