Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jul 3: The residential quarters provided by the government to its employees are leaking. These houses are in a dilapidated state and during every monsoon, their roofs leak.

Most of the government quarters near Bondel are in a bad shape. People living in these houses spread out tarpaulin sheets over the roofs in order to escape from experiencing rain inside their houses. As and when the wind blows, the sheets get lifted in the air, and water comes into their houses.

Employees working in revenue, justice department, excise, education etc reside in the houses near Bondel. The houses near Lalbagh too are in a vulnerable condition. In some of these houses, people have shifted to rented houses as the wooden roof support beams have broken and the tiles have been falling inside the houses. It is dangerous to live in houses that begin to collapse.

The public works department has to perform repairs and maintenance of these houses but the department seldom attends to this work. Therefore, every year many government quarters crash to the ground. Over 15 houses near Lalbagh have already fallen to the ground and more are in the line. Most drivers and D category employees live in these houses and they are not able to meet high rentals. The government has to attend to the maintenance of their houses. At the same time,  quarters of officials placed higher in positions are maintained well.

The government has not provided these quarters free of cost. A specific percentage of salary is deducted when disbursing it. Even though the problem was repeatedly brought to the notice of the officials, they do not show any interest to repair houses. Therefore the employees buy tarpaulins on their own. Even then the employees have to use utensils to collect leaking roof water, explains an employee of the education department.

Yashwant, engineer of PWD says that proposals have been submitted to the government seeking the release of funds for houses that are in bad shape. He says that there are 450 such houses in the district and as enough money does not come from the government, the repair work is undertaken in phases.