Sir,
Around 1962, on the ground of providing employment opportunity, Central Govt. of Press, Press Colony branch, Coimbatore - 19, was started.. It starting functioning with more than 1000 employees and was running well for many years..Separate quarters for accommodating 450 emlpoyees and their family (around 34 blocks with 8 to 16 in each block) was constructed and permanent CPWD office for the maintenance of those quarters was established and is functioning till now..
Due to policy changes, the government took decision of decreasing the employees and did not recruit any employees for many years and also gave VRS to more than 150 permanent employees... and hence around 2002 the strength of the employees got decreased to less than 200 employees and most of the quarters became vacant (around 350 to 400 quarters is vacant for the past 5 years)... Since the Press management has to pay water bill for every quarters unnecessarily which are vacant, the Press management decided to hand over 80% of the quarters to CPWD itself and only 20% of the quarters is being occupied now...
The problem is that the CPWD is careless in maintaining the quarters handed over to them... Most of the doors have no locks and they are kept open, so that theives and others freely enter into them and steel the pipes, fans, door locks, and other items in the quarters and also most of the Syntex tanks in good condition have got stolen... the CPWD is careless about this as some persons working there are included in this theft. Also, there is very less work load for the CPWD there and many of the employees do side business like lending money for interest, play cards inside the office room, etc...(you can have secret enquiry and identify what is happening). Many do not remain the office.
Even though some measures were tried to hand over the vacant quarters to some other Central Govt. departments, it all failed due to mismatch of HRA and the status of the quarters... Once upon a time quarters was always crowded and living in it was joyful... now it has become a spot for thieves and other criminals to hide and even brothel also is going on there sometimes...
Around 300 acres of vacant land belonging to Central Govt. Press is kept useless without any benefit for anybody...(no other branches in India has this much vacant land in possession)... There is no public movement after 8 0'clock in the night and no business opportunities, proper shopping facilities, etc..All the other areas nearby have developed but the "first developed" Press Colony has now become a place unfit for happy living...
Pls kindly bring this to the attention of the concerned authorities and do the needful so that proper secret visit shall be made to the Quarters and appropriate assessment and judement regarding this and the developmental aspects of the Press shall be made in this regard...
Thanks.
K. Marudhavanan
Ex- Councelo
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