The State government has issued orders to review the rents being paid for the office buildings of various institutes other than departments in the Capital region.
Then government had issued instructions to relocate the offices of the heads of the departments to the new Capital region in and around Vijayawada and Guntur in June 2016.
The Special Chief Secretary, Transport, Roads and Buildings department, have been told to evolve a procedure after consulting the Finance Department to fix the rents. Finalising rents up to ₹20 per sq. ft. has been delegated to the head of the department while entering the rent agreement with the building owner.
Finalising of rent between ₹20 per sq. ft. and ₹30 sq. ft, in exceptional cases, was delegated to a committee comprising Special Chief Secretary to Government, R&B, Expenditure Secretary, Finance department and the HoD concerned.
The order said that many departments, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and Head of the Departments were functioning from rented buildings for which the rents were “abnormally high”.
Therefore, strict instructions had been issued to all concerned, including government institutions, not to agree for rents above ₹30 sq. ft , and the area meant for parking should be excluded from the area for which the rent was calculated.
All the departments and HoDs have been directed to review their respective building rents comparing it with the market rent or the rent prescribed by R&B or the Finance Department and look for the structures that have reasonabe rents, the government said and directed the heads concerned to take necessary action immediately.
