A Right to Information (RTI) petition filed by a social activist, Abhay Jain, has revealed that nearly 28 lakhs in penal house rent are pending against five Haryana police officers.
The amount is due against the officers as they did not vacate their government-allotted houses in Gurugram even after being posted out of the city.
Providing an exact amount to the RTI information, the state police department has revealed that a total of Rs 27, 71,068 is pending against five police inspectors, who have now been posted back in Gurugram.
The officers who have been fined are Anil Kumar, Naresh Kumar, Surender Singh, Praveen Kumar and Babu Lal.
They have been fined Rs 9,77,104, Rs 6,88,864, Rs 5,09,100, Rs 4,80,900, Rs 1,15,100, respectively, according to the period of their overstay in the government accommodation
The department also informed that although over 4,000 policemen of different ranks are posted in Gurugram, only 929 government accommodations are available for them.
"There is a shortage of accommodation for police officers in the city. For every 100 police personnel, there are only 17 official's apartments. At a time when there is increased shortage the where the officers prolong their stay at the accommodations which then amounts to the majority of personnel and their families living in rented accommodations. The situation has come to this pass partly because some officers with 'connections in the right places' do not vacate their government accommodation for long periods despite being posted out of the city," said a senior official.
The officer also stated that plans to build more apartments for are being plotted.
"In the coming years we hope to improve the situation from 17 to 34 apartments for every 100 police personnel," he added.
This is not for the first time that the personnel have found themselves on the wrong side of the law.
Earlier around 22 Gurugram police personnel were booked by the electricity board officials because of power theft.