So if you are transferred
to Shillong and want
a secluded shelter above your head, there cannot be anything else as tougher than to get a rented accommodation here. Meet Chandrakant Sharma from Lucknow who was transferred here last month but could not manage a rented accommodation till date.
“I have tried all other avenues but could not manage a single house. All I am getting is bigger houses for family purpose with rent as high as Rs 8000 onwards,” rued Sharma who is presently managing his stay with other colleagues.
Sharma further said that he never thought that getting a rented accommodation would turn out to be such a Herculean task here. Had he known the existance of such a scenario, he would have tried for an accommodation much before when he got the news of his transfer through his friends.
“I’ll see one more month and if there is no other option than I have to take the bigger family rooms since I cannot burden my colleagues anymore,” he said dejectedly.
Like Sharma there are numerous such outstation officials who are finding great difficulties in getting accommodation.
Another such Union Government official, Umesh Puri from Odisha said that he had to slog for two months to get an accommodation. “I am lucky that my office has a guest house facility, which are provided to the employees for a brief period or else I would have been on the streets considering the crisis here,” he said.
These working officials who are here on transfer said that the town caters to a single category of people, that is, those who have enormous amount of money.
“There is no room rent below Rs 7000 here and if a person wants to stay all alone then he has to simply leave the place as house owners don’t allow single stay facility,” said this employee of Geological Survey of India.
Later with no other option left, this officer had to take on rent a number of rooms, although he is staying alone, in Rynjah area of the city.
These rent seekers are also affected by the absence of property dealers in the town. “There are no agents here who keeps track on rented accommodation in suitable places so that the rent seeker is not burdened with such tasks besides their official works,” said a bank employee working here on transfer.
He said that the public here are not enterprising since there is none to tap this opportunity of getting into the job of providing rental services since there are numerous people who comes here on a daily basis and needs accommodation for their stay.
A resident of Kerala who is working in Shillong said that there are various types of accommodation found in the southern state for all categories of people and according to their earnings. “There rent starts from Rs 1500 onwards and there are various types of accommodation available according to the requirements of the rent seeker,” he said.
Though this is simply unthinkable here, this crisis situation can also be attributed to the lackluster attitude of the State Government.
Firstly, the absence of a rent controller in the state has allowed the house owners to run their trade arbitrarily employing their own rules and regulations.
This trend has also given rise to house owners demanding unearthly amount from tenants besides increasing the rent amount capriciously.
There is no transparency in terms of agreement as tenants also faces sudden order of vacating the rented accommodation.
All this is happening due to the lack of a watchdog from the Government side.
(By Rajib Roy)