Over 27k public servants await official residence
More than 27,000 government employees of the federal capital are waiting for their turn to get official residences, as per their entitlement, for the past several years and compelled to pay extra charges on rented accommodation.
They have submitted their applications for allotment of official residences, through proper channel, with the Estate Office of the Ministry of Housing and Works, but facing inordinate delay.
The government officials, residing in the rented apartments, have been bearing the brunt of the chronic shortage of official accommodations, faced by the Ministry of Housing and Works (MoHW) at the moment.
"At present, 29,000 federal government employees are residing in the government residences," an official source said, confirming the shortage of facility. The waiting list has been growing gradually due to increase in number of new applicants, he added.
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He said that concerted efforts were being made at the government level since the country had been facing a shortfall of approximately 9-10 million housing units. The official pointed out that no government houses have been built since 1995 as a ban was imposed on the construction of new facility by the then federal cabinet.
Sharing the ministry's endeavours for streamlining the allotment process, he said the MoHW had completed the data entry of all allotments of government accommodations (category wise) at the website of Estate Office to ensure transparency in the allotment process.
The status of allotment as well as name of allottees and their departments had now been available on the site and could be checked anytime, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2020.