A retired Captain of the Indian Army, MS Uppal has returned four gallantry medals, awarded to him, to the Chief Justice of India on Thursday. He was exasperated by the Delhi Development Authority’s inordinate delay towards allocation of a plot that was promised to him under the Rohini Residential Scheme of 1981.
Despite various promises made by the DDA to Delhi High Court and to the Supreme Court in the last four years, there has been no decision taken yet with regards to the case of ‘handing over the promised plot’.
Uppal approached every possible authority that could allot the plot from the DDA, for which an official application was made. However, when nothing happened, Uppal initially returned his medals to the President in 2007, though his medals were returned to him by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi under a written promise that the matter would be resolved soon. However, neither the office of President of India nor the office of Lieutenant Governor of Delhi & the DDA has done anything with regards to the matter.
Captain MS Uppal had applied for a 90 sq. meter plot with DDA in 1981 under its Rohini Residential Scheme – 1981. Against the promise made by DDA in 1981 that all registrants will be allotted applied size and a fully developed plot within 5 years, DDA kept on delaying the allotment to him and other registrants on the pretext of ‘shortage of land’. In 1999, on the same pretext the sizes of plot to MIG & LIG scheme registrants were also reduced by DDA unilaterally and illegally.
By returning his gallantry medals, which he earned while fighting the 1971 war with Pakistan in Western Sector and during his service to the Army, Uppal has mentioned categorically that the medals are of no use to him, ‘as the country and DDA particularly does not respect a soldier and a citizen of India’.