Something surely fishy: LDA cancels bookings! | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Something surely fishy: LDA cancels bookings!

None | ByHT Live Correspondent
Aug 06, 2006 12:30 AM IST

THE MYSTERY over the actual number of vacant flats in Nehru Enclave deepened on Saturday when the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), in a sudden turnaround, decided to put off the booking exercise for the property without assigning any reason for the same. ?The ongoing booking is being cancelled. We would invite fresh applications under the scheme from August 17 to August 31 .

THE MYSTERY over the actual number of vacant flats in Nehru Enclave deepened on Saturday when the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), in a sudden turnaround, decided to put off the booking exercise for the property without assigning any reason for the same.

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“The ongoing booking is being cancelled. We would invite fresh applications under the scheme from August 17 to August 31 after which the lots for the vacant Enclave properties would be cast in September,” said LDA Vice-Chairman BB Singh. So, what happens to those who have already applied under the scheme following LDA’s public notice that flats would be allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis? “They would be asked to collect their bank drafts and apply afresh,” said Singh.

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In a two-day drive on July 31 and August 1, the enforcement wing of the development agency, had evicted illegal occupants from 76 flats in the colony.

However, the very next day when the LDA put out a notice inviting applications against these vacant flats, their number dwindled to 65. The staff of the property section had no answer as to where the remaining 11 flats had disappeared.

This is aside from the 130 flats that were freed from the clucthes of the illegal occupants by the LDA in a similar drive on April 15.

According to officials, 118 forms have been sold since Thursday when the LDA formally opened the booking for the flats. Against this, 60 applicants had already submitted the forms along with the requisite bank draft. The response belied the claims of the LDA officials, who on the pretext that there were no takers for these flats, were trying to sell them off to some of their own people.

Meanwhile, though the LDA officials claimed that they had deployed private security guards to ensure that these flats were not re-grabbed by the anti-socials, not a single security personnel was present when this correspondent visited the colony on Saturday. What is more, the seal of flat number V-218, was also found broken. Apparently, the same policemen, who had grabbed the flat and put up a board claiming it to be a police outpost for Vishwas Khand Gomti Nagar, had again taken hold of the property.

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