DDA housing scheme: About 6,500 flats surrendered by allottees, says Hardeep Singh Puri

About 6,500 flats allotted last year under the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) housing scheme have been surrendered by the allottees, the Lok Sabha was informed. The DDA has offered about 4,500 of these flats for allotment to organisations such as Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Border Security Force (BSF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) for accommodation of their personnel deployed in various parts of Delhi, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said in a written reply. “The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has intimated that about 6,500 flats allotted under the DDA Aawasiya Yojana-2017, have been surrendered by successful allottees,” he said. The minister said “no specific reasons” have been given by the allottees, while some of the applicants have stated that built-up area of the allotted flat was not sufficient to meet their requirements. “The DDA has sent letters offering about 4,500 of these flats for allotment to organisations such as CISF, BSF, SSB, CRPF for accommodation of their personnel deployed in various parts of Delhi,” the minister said, adding the response of these organisations was awaited. The flats will be allotted to these organisations on “no profit, no loss” basis. To a query, the minister said the DDA has intimated that that there was no scope for further reduction in rates of these flats as they were offered on “no profit, no loss basis”. The DDA has also decided to increase the size of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Lower Income Group (LIG, 1BHK) flats for future construction to 40 sqm (including circulation area) and 50 sqm respectively. On whether the once sought-after DDA flats have, of late, been losing out to private housing projects, Puri replied, “The DDA has intimated that no such report has been received by it.” Over 46,000 applicants had applied for 12,617 flats across four income categories located in Rohini, Dwarka, Narela, Vasant Kunj, Jasola, Pitampura, Paschim Vihar and Siraspur. Draw was held in November for the flats, costing from close to Rs 7 lakh to over Rs 1.26 crore. Of the total number of flats offered, around 10,000 unoccupied ones were from the 2014 housing scheme. The 2014 scheme offered 25,040 flats across categories, with prices ranging between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 1.2 crore.