The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will, for the first time, present a policy for its re-settlement colonies before the Lieutenant-Governor in the next authority meeting. The draft policy seeks to resolve the issue by granting freehold rights to over 30,000 households across these colonies for a fee. Under the new policy, the agency is planning to conduct a survey and identify the original owners of such property will have to pay the DDA a sum of either Rs 5000 or Rs 10,000 in order to get freehold rights. The new owners will be asked to pay the DDA the present circle rate for the property. “We are considering asking the original owners who have not resold their plots to give us a fee of either Rs 5000 or Rs 10,000 to get freehold rights. Those who have purchased plots from the original owners will be asked to get freehold rights after they pay the DDA the present circle rate,” a senior DDA official. According to DDA officials, the issue has been pending for over 14 years. Officials claimed a consensus couldn’t be reached easily as the original plots had changed hands several times and tracking the original owners would be a task. “The issue entails giving freehold rights to all those who had purchased properties across re-settlement colonies in the capital. We kept wondering how to address the issue at hand till we finally came up with a policy to charge them a fee since there seems to be no other way out,” a senior DDA official said. The DDA has 23 resettlement colonies on its land. Originally, the agency had given residents plots of 26 square meters each for a sum of Rs 3,000 with a condition that houses would have to be constructed within three years and that they cannot be sold or transferred. However, the properties have since been sold several times over. Officials said these colonies now have over 800 to 1,000 shops as well.
