Most residents of Bhoomiheen Camp — a jhuggi jhopri cluster — in Kalkaji are disappointed with the Delhi Development Authority’s decision to allot economically weaker section (EWS) flats to 679 households at the agency’s project in A-14, Kalkaji Extension.
The reason for their resentment: only 25% of flats (total 2,700) have been allotted despite the “majority” of them furnishing all necessary documents.
According to the DDA, on Tuesday, deficiency letters were issued to the remaining households at the camp, requesting them to submit the documents required to fulfil their eligibility for housing under the agency’s in-situ slum rehabilitation project.
The project is a part of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), which is implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs with the objective of ensuring proper housing to eligible slum dwellers, people from the low, middle-income groups, and EWS.
For Sapan Shah, 59, a resident of the camp, the wait to move into the promised house under the project has remained a distant dream. “I have submitted all the required documents but my name is not there among the 679 households that will receive the allotment letters. I and many others at this camp have been waiting for the allotment of flats for many years. We have only seen delays and false promises,” he said.
Another resident at the camp, who did not wish to be named, said one entire block at the camp has been left out of the allotment list despite the families submitting the required documents.
Grievance camp
“We will conduct a grievance camp for the residents because there are deficiencies in their documents. There are people who have not submitted their applications despite being informed. Many have rented out their homes at the camp and live elsewhere. We are following procedure as per the policy,” a senior DDA official said.
While the residents of Bhoomiheen Camp expressed discontent over being left out, residents in the nearby JJ clusters — Navjeevan Camp and Jawaharlal Nehru Camp — were upset over the DDA’s decision to not include their housing under the Kalkaji project.
According to another senior DDA official, a housing scheme based on a public-private partnership model has been prepared for the two camps and the tenders will be floated soon.
Residents at the two camps pointed out that the Kalkaji project was aimed at accommodating some of their households too, and the DDA’s decision will “now result in another long wait”.
“I have spent decades at this place and who doesn’t want proper housing? We were hopeful of moving to the flats at Kalkaji. The new scheme is something that we were not aware of. It is only during the election season that we hear promises like these,” said Radish Ahmed, 42, who has been living at Navjeevan Camp since 1991.
Jagdish, a ragpicker at Jawaharlal Nehru Camp, had a similar view. He emphasised that residents can “only wait” because “they have no power to ask the government”. “We will wait forever because we need the homes. The government is powerful and we cannot oppose or question their decision.”
The senior DDA official said the decision to not accommodate households from the two camps at the Kalkaji extension project was taken “much earlier because we cannot accommodate all of them”.
“The Kalkaji project was undertaken by the DDA and not on a PPP model, so we have to recover the cost. Through the PPP scheme we will ask the developer to make housing provisions for the two camps, along with a remunerative component. The developer will have to vacate the two camps while providing the residents with either transit accommodation or rental expenses. On vacation, a particular portion of the land will be given to the DDA, which we will look to sell,” he said.
