Aerocity draw of lots held for 1 kanal and 16 marla plots; Olympian,gallantry awardees win too The much-awaited exercise to allot plots in Aerocity,the first independent integrated township of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) coming up in the vicinity of the upcoming international airport here,began on Saturday. In the first round of the draw of lots conducted in two phases at an open ground adjacent to PUDA Bhawan in Sector 62,GMADA picked 226 successful applicants for allotment of 1 kanal reserved categories (except physically handicapped) and 16 marla general and reserved categories (except physically handicapped) plots,GMADA Chief Administrator (CA) Vivek Pratap Singh told Newsline. As many as 181 allotted plots (1 kanal) were allotted under the special categories such as Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (97); freedom fighters (13); serving and retired defence personnel and paramilitary forces and war widows of these categories (26); total disabled soldiers of Punjab domicile (6); gallantry award winners from defence services,paramilitary forces and Punjab Police personnel awarded with President Police Medal (13); legal heirs of Army,paramilitary forces and Punjab Police personnel killed in action (13); and sportspersons awarded with Olympic,Commonwealth,Asian Games medals and mountaineers,who had scaled Mount Everest (13). Of the total 45 allotted plots of 16 marla,30 were of general category while the rest 15 were for reserved categories,GMADA Estate Officer (EO) Balbir Singh Dhol disclosed. Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra and Mahavir Chakra awardee Brigadier B S Mankotia and Kuldeep Singh Chandpuri (of Longewala fame) were among those,who were allotted 1 kanal plots under their respective reserved categories. The draw for allotment of 1 kanal plots began at 10 am and concluded around 1 pm,while the exercise for 16 marla plots went underway at 2.30 pm and got over by 4 pm. Senior IAS officers S K Sandhu and Anjali Bhawra,who were appointed observers by the state government,remained present all through the exercise. Around 2,000 people,including applicants,who were present on the occasion were shown the raffle tickets before putting them into the draw basket and the members of the public were called at random to pick a chit to determine the successful applicant. When Jaswinder Singh turned out to be the first successful applicant for 1 kanal plot under SC/ST category,he and his family members turned berserk. Our dream has come true, was their first reaction.We will build our dream house here, said Baljeet Kaur,who was the third successful applicant to own 1 kanal plot under the same category. When the draw for 1 kanal reserved category of freedom fighters was conducted,some of the unsuccessful applicants sought to convert their applications into general category but GMADA authorities turned down their request,which was not admissible as per norms. We have conducted the draw as per the order of preference given in the brochure, said GMADA EO,while informing that the list of successful applicants has been uploaded on GMADA and PUDA official websites www.gmada.org and www.puda.gov.in. GMADA CA said the successful applicants will be issued letters of intents in accordance with the order of High Court passed on Friday while the unsuccessful will get their earnest money back. The next draw of lots will be conducted on September 29 for 417 plots of 1 kanal size under general category. The successful applicants began getting lucrative offers of major dividends if they wished to resale their plots. A large number of realtors and their representatives were seen negotiating with the successful applicants on the spot itself.
