Housing scheme: 3 members of family win flats, DDA clarifies nothing wrong

The entire draw was computerised and in computerised draw even consecutive numbers could get flats, says DDA.

A week after the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) conducted the draw for the Housing Scheme 2014, its biggest housing project till date, an RTI activist pointed out how three members of the same family with consecutive application numbers were declared successful in the draw.

In no time, DDA issued a clarification following media queries and said the entire draw was computerised and in computerised draw even consecutive numbers could get flats.

“It may be mentioned that all these allottees are from Himachal Pradesh and are in no way connected with DDA or its employees,” the agency said.

RTI activist Rahul Gupta, on whose petition the apex court had asked DDA to allot plots to allottees of 1981 Rohini scheme, also highlighted how four applicants in a row, including the three members of a family, were allotted flats in the Scheduled Tribe category.

The three members of a family are Anil Kumar (application no. 1145321), son of Naseeb Chand has been allotted LIG flat no. 290, pocket-D1, location code: SA. Another member of the family is Gurnaib Singh (application no. 1145322), who has been allotted LIG flat no. 23, pocket–2, block–B4, Sector–G2, Location Code: NA (Narela). The third member of the family, Teja Singh, with application no. 1145323 has been allotted LIG flat no. 23, pocket–3, block–F9, Sector–G8, location code: NA (Narela).

Besides , Het Ram (application no. 1145320) has been allotted LIG flat no. 5, pocket–3, block–E, Sector G-8, location code: NA.(Narela).

“Something is fishy and leaves a lot to imagination. How is it possible for four application numbers in a row and three members of a family to be successful? The flats reserved for STs were less than the applicants in the category,” said Mr. Gupta.

In its clarification, DDA said, “As per the computerised draw even consecutive numbers can get flats and it all depends on their position in the randomised list from the seed number and also their preferences for locality and availability of flats in the particular locality. Since all these applicants were from the ST category, their probability of getting flat was high.”

It is to be noted that DDA vice-chairman Balvinder Kumar had said that the entire system - from draw to allotment - had been made file-less to make sure there was no foul play this time. On November 25, the draw was webcasted and was completed in two hours. DDA had postponed the draw thrice to bring down the time of draw of lots.