Journalism of Courage
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the DDA to apprise it of implementation status of its promise to the court that it would allocate 16,000 plots in Rohini as per its 1981 housing scheme which has largely gone awry.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna granted further time to the housing body and sought the status report by May 18.
While hearing a PIL filed in 2009 by one Rahul Gupta,the High Court had earlier pulled up the DDA for not allotting plots to 25,000 people even 25 years after the scheme was announced.
The court had also asked the DDA to explain why the agency had deprived so many people from their rightful ownership and why the registrants needed to pay a higher price for their plots.
In the petition,Gupta,who had applied for a plot under the scheme,said “around 84,000 registrants had applied for plots under MIG (middle income group),LIG (lower income group) and Janta categories under the housing scheme in 1981.
“Till 1989,the DDA had allotted the plots through computerised draws and assigned a waiting priority number to the remaining registrants,” Gupta said.
“Thereafter,the DDA kept delaying the process on one pretext or other,saying allotments would be made provided sufficient land and infrastructure services are made available by concerned agencies like the Delhi Administration and Municipal Corporation of Delhi,” he said.
Countering the allegations,the DDA,in its affidavit before the court,had said the delay in allotment was due to the non-availability of the anticipated number of plots for reasons beyond its control.
It also said earlier that plots could be made available to only 16,000 registrants and promised that it would allocate them by May 18.
“The approval of the competent authority is required since as per the Master Plan 2021,only 8 per cent of area in a residential pocket can be earmarked for development,the DDA said.
The bench has fixed May 18 as the next date of hearing.
