The state cabinet's decision to regularise illegal occupation of over 2,000 quarters of Jharkhand housing board is likely to benefit over 126 people in the Coal Belt, a majority (around 123) of the encroachers being in Bokaro.

The difference in number is primarily due to the success of several anti-encroachment drives conducted by the housing board wing in Dhanbad in 2013 and 2014, whereas similar action in the steel town of Bokaro failed owing to the lackadaisical attitude of the local administration that chose to bow to local protests.

Flats in both Bokaro and Dhanbad are under the jurisdiction of the Dhanbad divisional office of the housing board situated in the Housing Colony area of the coal town.

There are, in all, 944 units in Dhanbad under the divisional office of the housing board. Of these, 336 are not allotted LIG (low-income group) flats, 214 MIG (middle-income group) houses, 85 HIG (high-income group) houses, 23 HIG plots, 49 MIG plots, 20 LIG plots, 25 flats constructed under self-financing scheme, 96 Janata flats meant for BPL families and 96 integrated housing scheme flats.

Of these only 3 - one MIG house and two integrated housing scheme flats - are illegally occupied.

In Bokaro, there are in all 194 housing board units situated over 28 acres in Balidih. Of these, 144 are three-storey LIG flats while the remaining 50 are single-storey MIG flats. According to official data, 73 LIG flats and all 50 MIG flats are illegally occupied.

A housing board employee, however, expressed doubts over the efficacy of the cabinet decision to regularise illegally occupied houses. "Why would anyone buy a house constructed more than 30 years ago at the present market rate as he can buy a newly constructed house of a private builder by paying the same amount?" he said.

He also questioned the logic of legalising an illegal encroacher and said, "I have serious doubts whether a person would agree to pay money to buy a flat when he is in the habit of using it for free."

Dhanbad housing board division's executive engineer Binod Kumar said they were waiting to receive detailed guidelines of Wednesday's cabinet decision after which they would proceed with the regularisation exercise.

"We had tried to free up all flats in Dhanbad and Bokaro in 2013 and 2014 by carrying out eviction drives. These were successful in the coal capital due to the support of the district administration," Kumar noted.