Reveal names of those occupying PSU houses,Jharkhand HC tells CBI

The Jharkhand High Court directed the CBI to make public the names of all those who have illegally occupied houses belonging to public sector units.

The Jharkhand High Court on Monday directed the CBI to make public the names of all those who have illegally occupied houses belonging to public sector units (PSUs).

The division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Tatia and Justice P P Bhatt asked the Central investigating agency to submit a report enlisting the steps taken by these PSUs to get the houses vacated. Publicise the names of the illegal occupants, the bench told the CBI.

Earlier,the court took suo motu cognizance of a report published by a local Hindi newspaper alleging that a number of residences of Jharkhand-based PSUs such as Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL),Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) and Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) were illegally occupied. Subsequently,the HC ordered the CBI to probe into the matter. The CBI submitted its report along with a list of illegal occupants. The court then served notices interalia on these PSUs asking them to get these houses vacated by June 13. Since these PSUs failed to obey the order,the CBI submitted its report again,prompting the court to set the deadline of July 12 to comply with its order.

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In an affidavit filed before the court the CBI has given details of illegal occupants. As per the report,HEC has 264 illegal occupants,BCCL 12,100,and CCL 65,711.

Among the alleged illegal occupants at CCL are All Jharkhand Students Union head Chandra Prakash Choudhary,state Minister Satyanand Jha,Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Rajendra Prasad Singh,Director (Industry) Manish Ranjan,SP of Khunti Manoj Kaushik,and Deputy Commissioner of Ramgarh Ganesh Prasad. When The Indian Express contacted them,all claimed that the CCL had allotted them these houses. Theres nothing illegal about it, said Ranjan.