Meeting on Monday to also discuss PIL by farmers opposing land acquisition for projectThe good news: the Delhi government is ready to allot the first 9,000-odd homes under the Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojana, a project aimed at offering at least 4 lakh low-cost homes to the economically deprived populace of the Capital.The bad news: the project might have hit a roadblock.The reason: escalating cost of bricks, and litigation over land to be acquired by the government for the scheme.Post-Assembly elections, with the election code of conduct now lifted, Delhi Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta on Monday would meet top officials from all departments involved to take stock of the progress. Among these are the legal department, the land and building department, and the Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation (DSIDC), in charge of the construction.Senior government officials said the cost of homes — they are priced at Rs 2 lakh per dwelling at present — is bound to go up after the Haryana government increased taxes on manufacturing of bricks. This, they say, would defeat the very purpose of offering low-cost homes to slum dwellers. Since brick manufacturing is banned in Delhi, the state government sources them from Haryana.“The Haryana government has declared earth as a mineral and has thus raised taxes,” an official said. “This is affecting our cost of construction.”Monday’s meeting, the official said, would discuss the feasibility of asking the Centre to allot more funds for the housing scheme.The project, launched by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in 2007, is being funded by the Centre under the JNNURM scheme. The government has so far sanctioned approximately Rs 280 crore for the initial scheme of constructing 40,000 homes; the total cost is pegged at Rs 15,000 crore. Another cause of concern, to be addressed in Monday’s meeting, is legal cases filed against the government by farmers of Kanjhawala where nearly 141 acres has been earmarked for the project. “The farmers have been protesting against land acquisition for the past almost a year and have also filed a PIL in court questioning the Lieutenant Governor’s right to acquire land,” the official said. The farmers’ protest in Kanjhawala had taken a violent turn in September when a group gheraoed the local deputy commissioner’s office and even tried to disrupt the final session of the Delhi Assembly before the elections.
