Departments occupying extra space will have to pay rent

NEW DELHI: Ministries and government departments occupying office space elsewhere even after getting exclusive buildings will now have to pay “market rent“ to the urban development ministry.

Ministries and departments such as external affairs, Press Information Bureau and programme implementation will fall under this category , to name a few. A government panel had urged the urban development ministry to levy “penal charges on erring departments“ and to debit this charge from their office expense budget.

In its response, the ministry said, “The implementation was likely to be done by March 31, 2017 with the approval of urban development minister.“ Sources said the circular is awaiting M Venkaiah Naidu's approval.

Urban development ministry , which is the custodian of official space and allots space based on norms under general pool, will issue an order soon.

TOI on April 3 had first reported that all departments and ministries will now have to pay nominal rent fixed by Central Public Work Department ( CPWD) and they also have to pay the electricity bill.The entire scheme has been planned to make government department responsible for utilising space and electricity .

General pool office includes most of the bhawans in central Delhi like Rail Bhawan, Noth Block, South Block and Shastri Bhawan.