Cuttack, April 21: The state government has admitted in Orissa High Court that 15 politicians were occupying more than one government quarter each in Bhubaneswar.
Yesterday, the general administration department submitted a report on double occupancy of quarters by sitting MLAs and ministers in reply to a petition seeking a special financial audit to find out the loss incurred by the state government because of the illegal possession and non-payment of rent.
Occupation of more than one quarter is a violation of government rules. Parliamentary affairs minister Bikram Keshari Arukh had on February 10, 2015, submitted a list of violators, including his own name, in the Assembly.
Pradyumna Kumar Mishra, 75, former managing director, Odisha Tourism Development Corporation, had filed a PIL on the basis of a news report "Lawmakers hold on to houses" published in The Telegraph on February 11, 2015.
The department's rent officer Sangram Kumar Raysardar filed the report in form of an affidavit indicating that three ministers, the deputy Speaker, government chief whip, Opposition leader and nine other sitting MLAs were occupying two quarters, and 13 of them had not even paid the rent.
"Taking on record the affidavit, the division bench of Justice Vinod Prasad and Justice Biswanath Rath yesterday posted the matter to after two weeks for hearing, along with the petitioner's reply to the affidavit," said petitioner counsel B.P. Tripathy.
According to the affidavit, a copy of which is in possession of The Telegraph, rent of Rs 2.18 lakh was outstanding against Bikram Keshari Arukh (minister) for the quarter, which was under his possession since January 29, 2010. Arukh had been occupying another quarter since July 4, 1995, with dues of Rs 995.
The other two ministers with double occupancy of quarters are Jogendra Behera, who has an outstanding of Rs 1.59 lakh and Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi, who dues amount to Rs 1.13 lakh.
Deputy Speaker Sananda Marandi and government chief whip Ananta Das both occupy two quarters and have an outstanding of Rs 93,468 and Rs 86,686, respectively.
Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra has been occupying two quarters since July-August 2014 and Rs 99,079 is due against his name.
The other sitting MLAs occupying two quarters include Bhujabala Majhi, Maheswar Mohanty, Nrusingha Sahoo, Prafulla Majhi, Subrat Tarai, Subal Sahu, Rabinarayan Naik, Tara Prasad Bahinipati and Ramesh Patua.
However, two of these MLAs - Maheswar Mohanty and Ramesh Patua - had no dues outstanding against them.
The affidavit, however, has did not mention former MLAs, who have either lost elections or did not contest the last one, but were yet to vacate government quarters allotted to them.
The PIL has sought special financial audit by the Accountant General (Odisha) for the past 25 years to find out the loss to the state exchequer due to illegal possession of government quarters both by sitting and former MLAs.
The petition has also sought "immediate eviction" of the lawmakers and former MLAs from the quarters under illegal possession and appropriate penal action.
"Since the acts of the lawmakers are detrimental to the society and the public at large are being affected due to colossal loss to the state exchequer," the petition contends.
The department, which owns the quarters in Bhubaneswar, is expected to take steps to evict illegal occupants from the quarters.
