Delhi govt asked for accounts on EWS flats

The union government has again asked the Delhi government for details about the flats allotted to the poor under the previous UPA government’s flagship Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission (JNNURM).

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has written to the Delhi government asking it to furnish the number of flats allotted to people belonging to the economically weaker sections of society. The government was to construct 67,784 flats under the Basic Service to the Urban Poor - a sub-mission of the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewable Mission (JNNURM) scheme launched by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government. A Delhi government official said of these, only 4,000 have been allotted, and data is being collated to send a formal reply to the ministry. The deadline for building these flats was March 2014. ‘These flats are divided into 17 projects, of which only six projects have been completed,’ an official in the Delhi government’s urban development department said. Asked why the number of allotments was low, the official said, ‘The problem is of identification. Many people have been identified, but they don’t have documents like ration cards required for allotment of a flat.’

Interestingly, of the 67,784 flats, the Delhi government wants to drop the construction of 9,000. This is in addition to the 3,600 that were scrapped a few months ago. In July, the Delhi government had written to the ministry to whittle down 9,060 units from the original 67,784. If the central government accepts the Delhi government’s fresh proposal, the number of dwelling units will come down to 55,124.

The move came in the wake of the ministry’s direction in June after reviewing the progress of the housing projects.