If you are a Lower class officer or staff and you dare to overstay at any Government accommodation, You will have to shell out Rent, Arrears & steep fine imposed on it. Obviously this rule doesn't apply to Top Officer's , Especially if you a occupying top post of Collector of Mumbai City. Mumbai City collector Ashwini Joshi just got her penalty arrears to the tune of 3.07 lakhs waived off, not without the help of 'sympathetic' fellow civil servants. She was found occupying Government flat in Kedar-2 Building in Churchgate, Even after her transfer to Thane. RTI activist Anil Galgali gained access to PWD departments papers regarding her stay, the penalty imposed thereon & its 'magnanimous' withdrawal by Maharashtra Government.
RTI Activist Anil Galgali ask the detail documents of Ashwini Joshi overstay and penalty imposed. Government Administration Department Public Information Officer and Under Secretary Mr SM Dhule informed Galgali that Govt of Maharashtra under Special Case waived off her penalty. According to the Documents, Ashwini Joshi then posted in Mumbai was transferred to Thane on 17th December 2014. According to existing rules a civil servant can keep his or her accommodation on payment of a nominal rent for 3 months after his or her transfer. On lapse of this period, penalty goes up to Rs 50 per square foot -a steep rise according to Government standards, but almost a pittance compared to existing rents in Mumbai. By 13th October 2015, These penalty arrears due to Joshi had mounted up to Rs 3,06,838/-. She neither vacated the plush flat, nor did pay the rent penalty. This year on 4th May 2016 she made a application for BrihanMumbai Government accommodation. The application made to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis conveniently skipped the details of her illegal occupation of churchgate flat. CM unknowingly approved the application according it priority. When the file reached General Adminstration department, The mater of pending rent & penalty were brought on record. Joshi pleaded that She had to keep the Churchgate flat, As she had to travel to Mumbai very often to attend to official matters. She also requested that She be charged the original nominal rent, instead of much steeper Rs 50/- penalty. GAD forwarded her plea to the Chief Ministers Office quoting the nominal rent to be charged. Chief Ministers Principal Secretary forwarded the file with his approval and it was a matter of time it had CM Fadnavis's signature routinely affixed on it.
The loss of a few lakhs in Government Revenue should be a matter for concern. A civil servant entrusted with collecting revenue from citizen, skirting the law to forgo her own penalty sets up a wrong precedent, said Galgali. Anil Galgali has demanded to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that Joshi be made to pay up all arrears with severe penalities. Other Government servants, who colluded to waive off higher penalty and those who kept the CM of the state in the dark should also not go unpunished.
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