Civic agency quarters in mess, remain out of bounds for officials

While many employees of the municipal corporations are waiting to get official accommodation, councillors of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation have alleged that several quarters owned by the civic body have either been illegally occupied by ex-employees or are lying vacant.

“Many former employees have not vacated their quarters even after retiring. Such premises are being misused by the occupants,” said leader of House in North Corporation, Mahendra Nagpal.

“Many such quarters have been rented out. And some of them have even been encroached upon.”

Councillors raised the issue in the House meeting. They alleged that a majority of the MCD quarters are in a bad condition as they have not been maintained for a decade.
“Forget about maintenance work, even whitewashing has not been done in the official quarters for more than a decade. There is a great risk for people living in them,” said leader of opposition in North Corporation, Mukesh Goel. “The way the corporation maintains its buildings can be assessed from the fact that the roof of the chamber of RBTB hospital’s director has collapsed. He was fortunate enough that he was on leave,” added Goel.

He alleged that no contractor wants to take up the maintenance work as the corporation does not clear bills for years.

There are 2,259 different types of quarters under the North Corporation’s jurisdiction, of which at least 90 are lying vacant, said an official. Officials conceded that some of the buildings are in bad shape.

“We have conducted a survey of the buildings. Some of them have not been maintained for years due to shortage of funds. The 90 quarters are lying vacant because they have been declared dangerous to live,” said additional commissioner, Deepak Hastir.

“However, the maintenance work will start soon. We have decided to rope in experts from IIT to assess the buildings.”