DDA housing scheme 2017: More than 3,000 allottees return flats within a month

More than 3,000 allottees of Delhi Development Authority’s ambitious 2017 housing scheme have surrendered their flats within a month of the draw of lots, citing small size and lack of basic amenities.

The allottees have also claimed that the authority wrongly projected the size of the flats in the publicity brochure.

Most of the returned flats, officials said, are in the LIG category in Narela on the city outskirts and have been returned even before the agency could issue demand-cum-allotment letters to the winners of the lottery. Of the 46,000 applications received for the 2017 scheme, DDA allotted the flats to 12,617 applicants in the draw of lots held on November 30.

The flats, officials said, are small-sized and among 8,500 returned by the allottees in the land owning agency’s 2014 housing scheme. Then too, the reasons cited were small size or inadequate civic facilities in the localities. Later, the authority clarified that the flats were included in the latest scheme after the problems were fixed.

“According to the maps shown in the brochure, I thought the one-room flat had 10x10 ft room but it was even less than 6X6 ft where there is no space for even an average-sized bed,” said Rameshwar, a businessman from Nangloi in northwest Delhi who was allotted a flat in Narela.

“The surrendered flats are those for the lower-income group where the applicants have cited small size of the rooms,” said JP Agrawal, principal commissioner (housing).

The 12,617 flats include 11,757 lower income group (LIG), 403 middle income group (MIG), 372 Janta and 85 higher income group units. Priced between Rs 7 lakh to over Rs 1.26 crore, the flats are located in various colonies across the city such as Rohini, Dwarka, Narela, Vasant Kunj, Jasola, Pitampura, Paschim Vihar and Siraspur.

“The place is far from we thought. There are no roads and not even drinking water facility,” said an allottee of an LIG flat who did not want to be named.

Agrawal said that the allottees should have visited the flats before applying.

The once much sought-after DDA flats have, of late, been losing out to private housing projects which provide better amenities at lower rates in the National Capital Region (NCR). There is a provision for surrendering the flats within 15 days after the demand-cum-allottment letters are issued.

Officials said DDA would adjust the flats in the waiting list and in case no one takes them, the agency would consider merging two flats to increase the size.

“If that doesn’t help we will try to give these flats to police personnel,” Aggrawal said.

In July 2016, the then minister of state for urban development, Rao Inderjit Singh, said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha that out of 25,039 flats for draw of lots in the 2014 housing scheme, 10,653 flats were surrendered or cancelled. After the return of flats in the earlier schemes DDA had claimed that the problems with them had been addressed.

In fact, the new under-construction flats, which are part of the 2018 housing scheme of the DDA, have swanky multi-level underground parking and rainwater harvesting units.