VE-1 in Unit – 6, Bhubaneswar is a Government Bungalow of Type-5 and in Estate Directorate parlance, a diamond quarter, which stand in close vicinity of the Raj Bhawan, the official residence of the State Governor. Government Officers of Joint Secretary and above rank are usually considered for allotment of residential quarters of this type of quarter. Lower categories of Officers do not dare to apply for allotment of this type of quarter.
But this precious Bungalow is lying abandoned for around a year. The iron grills both in the front and back side of the quarter have been taken away by miscreants. All the wooden panels of doors and windows are also gone.
From the front, the Bungalow now looks like a haunted house. In the rooms, denuded of doors and windows, drug peddlers and casual prostitutes find their heavens. The floors are spread with straws that the debauchee use as beds and the piles of ash speak of how the drug addicts act.
Sometimes ago, a Type-6 quarter in this locality was also in use for such nefarious activities for more than a year. It has now been allotted to a new occupier and therefore the joint has shifted its venue, perhaps to this abandoned bungalow.
Besides being quite adjacent to the Governor’s house, this particular bungalow is very near to the Heads of Departments building and the Secretariat. Both the capital maintenance office and the office of the chief engineer of buildings are within a distance of half a kilometer from this bungalow.
But this is happening without any official intervention. This is Orissa administration!
(Pictures: Laxmi Prasad Pattanayak)