catkin_make: cmake failure for certain directory names

edit

Hellos I am running ROS Indigo on Ubuntu 14.04. I am getting cmake errors by catkin_make for freshly created workspaces. Catkin_init_workspace, catkin_make works well for any directory directly inside home director i.e. ~/catkin_ws etc. I have catkin error for directory ~/work/catkin_pkgs/any_directory_name. Any workspace creation inside ~/work/catkin_pkgs/ or ~/work directories results in the following errors (a part is shown):

-- Using CATKIN_TEST_RESULTS_DIR: /home/nitin/work/catkin_pkgs/catkin_mrs/build/test_results
-- Looking for include file pthread.h
-- Looking for include file pthread.h - found
-- Looking for pthread_create
-- Looking for pthread_create - not found
-- Looking for pthread_create in pthreads
-- Looking for pthread_create in pthreads - not found
-- Looking for pthread_create in pthread
-- Looking for pthread_create in pthread - found
-- Found Threads: TRUE  
-- Found gtest sources under '/usr/src/gtest': gtests will be built
-- Using Python nosetests: /usr/bin/nosetests-2.7
-- catkin 0.6.9
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/nitin/work/catkin_pkgs/catkin_mrs/build/catkin_generated/generate_cached_setup.py", line 21, in <module>
    code = generate_environment_script('/home/nitin/work/catkin_pkgs/catkin_mrs/devel/env.sh')
  File "/opt/ros/indigo/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/catkin/environment_cache.py", line 61, in generate_environment_script
    output = subprocess.check_output([env_script, sys.executable, '-c', python_code])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 566, in check_output
    process = Popen(stdout=PIPE, *popenargs, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 710, in __init__
    errread, errwrite)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1327, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied
CMake Error at /opt/ros/indigo/share/catkin/cmake/safe_execute_process.cmake:11 (message):
  execute_process(/usr/bin/python
  "/home/nitin/work/catkin_pkgs/catkin_mrs/build/catkin_generated/generate_cached_setup.py")
  returned error code 1
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /opt/ros/indigo/share/catkin/cmake/all.cmake:185 (safe_execute_process)
  /opt/ros/indigo/share/catkin/cmake/catkinConfig.cmake:20 (include)
  CMakeLists.txt:52 (find_package)


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "/home/nitin/work/catkin_pkgs/catkin_mrs/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "/home/nitin/work/catkin_pkgs/catkin_mrs/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".
Invoking "cmake" failed

Somehow it is not able to find pthreads. This is also reported in CMakeErrors.log. But pthreads is obviously present in the system. I am not aware what is cause of this. Rgds Nitin