New Delhi: The Nagaland government had to surrender two of its staff quarters from its official quota in New Delhi in order to fulfill state governor R.N. Ravi’s wish to hold on to a house allotted to him by the central government in 2015 when he was the chairman of the joint intelligence committee (JIC), according to a news report.As per a New Indian Express report, Ravi was allotted the premises in the tony Moti Bagh area of the city in March 2015 due to his appointment as the chairman of the JIC in 2014. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Home Affairs, to which he was attached, also named him the interlocutor for the central government’s talks with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-Isak-Muivah).“But although even he retired from the intelligence panel in August 2018, he continues to occupy the premises to date. Sources said the ground on which he made a case for retaining the bungalow was that he continues to be the interlocutor for the Naga talks even after his appointment as the governor in August 2019,” the news report said.It said, “Even the Nagaland government has argued that as Ravi has to often travel to Delhi in his role as the interlocutor, he should be allowed to keep the flat from the state’s quota of central government property.”As per rules though, there is already a suite kept ready for the state governor in the Nagaland House in the Tughlak Road area.Since he was keen to hold on to that accommodation even after retirement from the post, the matter was referred to the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation (CCA) which, in 2018, reportedly agreed to do so on the conditions that it should be allotted on the Nagaland state government’s quota and two of the six flats already placed under that quota had to be surrendered. Since then, two employees occupying two Type-2 flats were issued orders to vacate their premises. Both the employees are widows with dependent children, a reason they cited while pleading the state government not to evict them. However, the government had set aside their plea and had evicted them recently.Watch | ‘Nagas Will Never Join Indian Union Nor Accept India’s Constitution’: NSCN (I-M) ChiefThe report also said that Ravi owes nearly Rs 64 lakh as rent for the premises for which he was issued a notice under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971. “According to a ‘provisional rent report’ sent to Ravi, a copy of which has been accessed by the daily, he has been asked to appear before the Directorate of Estates, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MHUA), for a ‘personal hearing’ on July 15 ‘or through a duty authorised representative’ to hear the dispute over the dues,” the report said.The recent eviction of two state government employees from their government quarters in New Delhi in order to surrender them to the MHUA seemed to be in preparation to tackle the matter.“As per a complaint filed by one of them [the evicted employees] they were served several show cause notices and even allegedly threatened by officials close to the governor. The complaint said they were told that if they don’t surrender their Type-2 flats as an ‘adjustment’ for Ravi’s bungalow, they would either be suspended or transferred home,” the news report said.In a letter written to the state deputy chief minister Y. Patton this past March 31, one of the employees had requested that she be excluded “from being the next target for eviction of my entitled quarter in which I have been staying for the last 25 years”.She wrote to the deputy chief minister, “I am a widow with two children who are solely dependent on me. If I am evicted from the government accommodation allotted to me, I will not be in a position to stay in a rented house as I belong to a low salaried income group of employees.”The governor’s commissioner and secretary T.M. Yanthan, didn’t deny the veracity of the matter “and said if there was any resentment over the action, it was up to the state government to deal with it.”Of the rest of the flats allotted to the state government under the general pool residential accommodation (GPRA) which is handled by the Directorate of Estates, one is occupied by the chief minister, and another by the additional chief secretary among some others.Also read: Has Governor Ravi’s Bid to Assert Control Jeopardised the Naga Peace Accord?The Wire tried to contact both governor Ravi and his secretary and commissioner M. Yanthan for a confirmation on the following: Whether the governor received a rent default notice for the said amount for the house in Moti Bagh and was asked to appear in person on July 15 as stated by the news report;Whether the two state government employees have been evicted so that the governor could continue to keep the premises under Nagaland state quota, as stated in the news report;The report will be updated if and when a response is received.