Over 1,200 government houses under unauthorised occupation in Delhi: Minister

India's Junior Urban Development Minister Babul Supriyo said that 1,200 government houses in Delhi are under unauthorised occupation which account for about 2 per cent of the total houses under government accommodations. "There are 1,207 government houses of different types under unauthorised occupation, accounting for about 2 per cent of the total houses under General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) in Delhi," Supriyo said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. Of these, 299 were in the lowest categories of Type-1 and Type-1 S, 472 in Type-2 houses, 202 in Type-III, 189 in Type-IV and Type-IV S, 20 in Type-V (A and B), 5 in hostel accommodations, 16 in Type-6 (A and B) and 4 in Type-VII houses and 1 in Type-VIII. Of these, 36 cases are pending before courts, 33 are with Kashmiri migrants and 27 with journalists, he said. Former Home Minister Buta Singh and Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Virbhadra Singh have moved the court against their eviction from government bungalows in Delhi while former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, who is seriously ill, is residing in one Type-VII accommodation. "A total of 1,531 houses were got vacated under the provisions of Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act during the last three years. These included 246 evictions in 2013, 539 in 2014 and 746 in 2015," Supriyo said. Eviction of unauthorised occupants has substantially improved over the last two years, he said, adding that while only 10 houses of higher type (Type VB to Type VIII) were got vacated in 2013, the number has increased to 69 in 2014 and 20 in 2015. Besides taking necessary measures for eviction, penal damages for such unauthorised occupation are charged at the rate of 55 times of normal rate of license fee for Type-VII and VIII category of houses, 50 times for Type-IV (Special) to Type-VI, 40 times of normal license fee for Type-I to IV category houses, he said.