The proposal for increasing licence fee from the existing provision of four times to ten times is under consideration of the Law Ministry, Minister of State for Urban Affairs, Bandaru Dattatreya, said responding to supplementaries during question hour.

The government proposed the stringent measures following the November 29, 1996 Supreme Court verdict on allotment of government allotments, Dattatreya said. The minister said that the government has cancelled accommodation in respect of 152 cases in 1997 and 327 in 1998 on charges of sub-letting.

Dattatreya rejected a suggestion by H Hanumanthappa (Congress) for dismissal of employees on charges of committing ``grave misconduct'' by sub-letting their accommodation and said thegovernment has to follow certain procedures before initiating action.

The minister said the Directorate of Estates had conducted spot inspection of 858 houses in 1997 and 700 in 1998 following complaints and door-to-door checking in some of the areas. He also denied that the government was bypassing the rules and regulations in the allotment of accommodation.