Have flat,can’t stay
A large number of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flats are lying unoccupied for the past many years in the city,where hundreds of thousands of people apply when a new housing scheme is announced.
A large number of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flats are lying unoccupied for the past many years in the city,where hundreds of thousands of people apply when a new housing scheme is announced.
These vacant flats,allotted under DDA’s housing schemes,are now showing signs of decay. The problem is compounded by lack of water supply and shortage of transport facilities – inconveniences that even the DDA says it’s aware of.
The handful of families living in the DDA flats in Rohini Sector 28,which were part of the 2008 housing scheme,have to take a potholed road to their apartments. No doubt,the majority of the houses are vacant.
“Hardly anyone lives here. The biggest problem is the lack of public transport. If you don’t have a car,you are stuck. No one lives in more than 50 per cent of the flats since this housing complex is embroiled in a scam,” a tenant,who has moved in a few months ago,said.
She said there’s hardly any good-quality property for tenants to choose from in the complex.
“Most of the single-bedroom flats (low income group housing) are empty and only half of the two-bedroom flats are occupied. Some of the allotments were canceled after fake application forms were detected. But the main reason behind this low occupancy is lack of commercial development in the area,” property dealer Ravi Shukla said.
The Rohini housing scheme,where over 5,000 flats were offered,came under the scanner after a man,who was allotted a flat in the draw of lots in December 2008,claimed that he had neither applied for a house nor had a permanent account number (PAN).
When asked if the scam has anything to do with the flats lying empty,DDA spokesperson Neemo Dhar said: “The agency has given possession papers of almost all the flats allotted under the 2008 housing scheme. The conveyance deed has also been executed.”
Down south in upmarket Vasant Kunj,the situation in the DDA flats in Sector E,Pocket-2,is even more miserable. Thieves have emptied most of the flats of their electrical and household fittings,including electricity meters and drain covers. Muck from open sewers,broken pipes and construction debris litter the entire colony.
“We don’t have water connection from Delhi Jal Board (DJB). We are surviving on water from a borewell. The roads inside the complex are in a bad shape. There are safety issues,too,because most of the flats are empty,” said one the few alottees to be living there.
Water could become the prime stumbling block to improve occupancy in D-6 Vasant Kunj,where flats were being allotted under the 2010 housing scheme. The DJB said two years ago that it didn’t have enough water to supply to these flats,which were supposed to be ready before the Commonwealth Games to accommodate tourists and delegates for an interim period.
The DDA,grappling with the empty flats,had requested Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to extend its tracks to the housing pockets in Narela during the Metro’s Phase-IV project.
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