Rail BABU's in glass house.

Rail brass makes full use of second homes worth up to Rs 50, 000 in extra income

By Maneesh Pandey
19 May 2013 |

CBI director Ranjit Sinha may be insisting that a probe be held against RPF Association secretary general U S Jha for "retaining accommodation despite retirement and against formal entitlement", but some of the top railway officers enjoying double housing benefits seem to have flown under the radar.


Foremost among the beneficiaries is suspended Railway Board Member (Staff) Mahesh Kumar, who retained his Railway Colony bungalow on Sardar Patel Marg in New Delhi while residing in an entitled palatial house in Mumbai as General Manager (Western Railway).
Kumar has bungalow no. 27 allotted in his name on SP Marg.

"Kumar could have retained his GM accommodation for next two to seven months under different criteria of retention had he started as a Railway Board member, but not the other way round," a senior railway official said requesting anonymity.
"The suspended top official retained his Delhi accommodation while being the GM (West) because of the clout he enjoyed with Railway top brass in the Capital,'' he added.
Many wonder if keeping twin accommodations was a reason behind Kumar bargaining to retain GM (West) post as additional charge.

 

Railway top sources confirmed that another GM-rank officer Alok Johri, who took charge of North Central Railway (NCR) in mid-June last year, is also retaining his bungalow no. 17 in the same colony in Capital even as he lives in the GM accommodation allotted to him in Allahabad, the zonal headquarters.

For Johri also, it's been more than 11 months but he has not surrendered his Delhi accommodation. The other in the list could be Madhuresh Kumar, who took charge of GM (East Central Railway) in Hajipur (Bihar) in January this year.
He is keeping his bungalow no. 6 in the SP Marg colony, while he lives in his entitled GM accommodation in Patna.
Top railway officials managing the accommodation pool in the Capital refused to give more names but confirmed the occupation of bungalows by the three aforementioned officials.#
These bungalows are of Type VI. "As per the rules for retaining of houses, only divisional railway managers and those serving in the North Frontier Railway (NFR) are entitled for twin accommodation, and there are different time periods extending from two to seven months under which you can retain the previous allotted accommodation.

However, in the latter case if it extends beyond two months you start paying the rent calculated in double and up to six times of what being paid usually in official capacity," a railway official told Mail Today.
When asked, railway officials refused to answer if these officials are paying the penal rent or retaining on pretext of other reasons. "The usual rent can run up to more than Rs 50,000 for the bungalows, which is even too little seeing the real estate value in the close vicinity where a room in Taj Mahal Hotel and Maurya is available for Rs 13-15,000 per night, or may be more," a senior official added.