The Hindu : DDA flats find a taker in Ministry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 23, 2002

Other States

Other States - New Delhi

DDA flats find a taker in Ministry

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI DEC. 22. Unable to find buyers for its "poor quality'' low-income group flats, the Delhi Development Authority has identified 10,000 of them for sale through the Union Labour Ministry -- now headed by former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh -- to factory employees and other labourers covered under the Employees' Pension Scheme of the Government of India.

The Ministry of Labour is getting forms filled up by those desirous of purchasing these flats and intends to announce the scheme on December 25, the birthday of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

A senior DDA official said the flats have been earmarked for sale through Ministry of Labour but as of now no filled forms have been received by the Authority from the Ministry. "Camps are being organised in the Labour Ministry where these forms are being filled up,'' said the official, adding that the applicants do not really know about the quality of construction or reasons on why the flats remained unsold for so long.

Many of these could not be sold due to problems associated with approach roads, court cases and basic amenities such as water and electricity, said the official.

The Commissioner (Housing) of DDA, D.B. Gupta, denied that there was any such problem and clarified that the flats in question are mostly one room tenements with a small bathroom and kitchenette. All these flats have been priced between Rs 1.74 lakhs and Rs 2.25 lakhs.

These flats, Mr Gupta said, had been constructed in Dwarka, Rohini and Jasola and were primarily meant for rehabilitating jhuggi dwellers. However, since most jhuggi dwellers are interested in plots, which allow flexibility in terms of future expansion, DDA found few takers for them.

Besides these flats, DDA is also offering about 800 flats constructed under Expendable Housing Scheme 1996 to the Labour Ministry. There were few takers for these flats as a large percentage of the allottees opted not to take them on account of problems related to infrastructure and quality of construction.

The issue of pricing of all these flats was finalised by DDA at its meeting on December 20. "Instead of applying a flat rate of Rs 2 lakhs to all these flats, DDA decided to price them as per the actual cost. So while the ordinary flats will be available between Rs 1.74 lakh and Rs 2.25 lakh, those of the EHS Scheme have been priced at a fixed rate of Rs 2.88 lakhs.

But while DDA is busy trying to reduce the backlog of unallotted flats lying in its kitty and has brought down their number to around 2,000 -- which too it aims to palm off to Delhi police -- the fact remains that many of its properties are faced with acute problems of approach, infrastructure and construction quality.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

Stories in this Section

Row over Khurana's new job

Kamal Nath's position weakens

Train services to be diverted

DDA flats find a taker in Ministry