The Haryana government has discontinued its affordable plotted housing scheme, Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojna (DDJAY), in Faridabad and Gurugram districts due to the high cost of land and its failure to benefit the lower and middle-income group homebuyers.
According to officials, the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department, issued a notice regarding the discontinuation of the DDJAY scheme in the Final Development Plan 2031 of Gurugram Manesar Urban Complex and Faridabad. The reason for scrapping the scheme was that the independent floors were being sold at very high prices due to high land costs, which has turned this affordable housing scheme unaffordable for homebuyers of this segment in Faridabad and Gurugram.
DDJAY was launched in 2016 in Haryana and the mandate of the scheme was to provide affordable housing to lower and middle-income groups and also put a check on the development of unauthorized colonies in the state.
Under the scheme, the registration of independent floors in plots was allowed and also permitted stilt parking. It was an affordable plotted housing policy, with a minimum and maximum planned area of five acres and 15 acres, respectively. Initially, the policy was meant only for towns having low- and medium-income families. However, districts like Gurugram and Faridabad were also added to the scheme later.
Due to the high cost of land in these two districts, independent floors were being sold at high prices under the scheme. This was against the mandate of any affordable housing scheme, officials said. They said that following these concerns, the plotted affordable housing scheme was put on hold in Gurugram and Faridabad in February this year. The council of ministers approved the amendment to the scheme, which aimed at scrapping it in these two districts which was later approved by the Haryana Governor.
The notice issued by the TCP stated that the pending license applications submitted before December 8 last year, where no letter of intent was granted under the scheme in Gurugram and Faridabad, shall be returned along with the scrutiny fee and license fee deposited by the applicants.
