Maken wants DDA to reserve flats for Delhiites, govt staff

NEW DELHI: Minister of state for home affairs, Ajay Maken has written to Union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy urging him to allot 70% of the 16,000 flats in the DDA Housing Scheme 2010 to Delhi residents and the other 30% to government employees. To ensure adequate publicity and timeframe for fresh applications to be solicited on the changed parameters, if the suggestions are accepted, he has also asked Reddy to extend the last date of filing application, which is December 24.
The timeframe of stay in the city that would qualify a person as a Delhi resident should be three to five years, Maken has written in the letter.This would ensure that “no irregularity takes place in the allotment since all applicants and their antecedents will be verified. You may recall Sir, that, the irregularities that had taken place last time were mostly on account of fake applicants from different parts of the country whose records could not be verified, as I had brought it to your notice even then,” the former MoS of UD has written to his erstwhile boss.
The reference is to the 2008 DDA scheme where allotment had to be put on hold for a long time because of large scale irregularities in the flats allotted, especially under the ST quota.
There is also mention of the housing shortage in the city juxtaposed with the fact that there are many “locked up vacant houses in the city with absentee landlords.”On his demand for a 30% reservation for government servants, Maken has said that there are about 65-70,000 units of government accommodation and the “satisfaction level of government servants vis-a-vis housing is 69%.”