Extra incomes of 'babus' higher than their salaries!

You can call it wealth creation, but Gujarat-cadre babus and policewalas are earning a fortune from ‘rent’ given for houses built on land acquired from various government or urban authorities. This is in addition to the salaries they get from the government coffers.

A closer scrutiny of immovable property returns (IPR) filed by officers reveals that a large number of them, both IAS and IPS, earn a substantial amount from other sources. Sixty-four of the 132 IPS officers have other sources of income, mostly rent on houses. The same holds true for IAS cadre officers as 150 of them have additional sources of income.

It is ironical that while political parties – whether in power or opposition – are promising houses to lower and middle income group families, these officers already own more than one house in their own name or in the names of their family members. 

All of these high profile officers have bought land or plots from state government or urban development authorities under different schemes.

Then they built houses on these plots and rented them out.  This is a common practice among officers who earn over and above their salaries.

In certain cases, rent income is higher than annual pay they get. For example, Ajay Tomar, joint commissioner of police, earns Rs15.30 lakh as income from rent which is higher than his annual salary (based on basic pay) of Rs8.52 lakh.

Similarly, Harikrishna Patel, JK Bhatt, Praveen Sinha and Pramod Kumar also earn more as rent than their annual salaries.

It is to be noted here that posted as superintendent of police at Jamnagar, Harikrishna Patel is the richest IPS officer with net worth of Rs8.30 crore.

On back of Rs35 lakh from a school he runs, revenue inspection commissioner Arun Sutaria tops the list of IAS officers who earn more than their salary income.

Principal secretary in water supplies department Dr Rajiv Kumar Gupta earns Rs34.57 lakh a year from rent. He owns a house built on a plot allotted by state government in Gandhinagar and also a flat in New Delhi which he inherited from his parents.