All allottees from same town, Haryana government halts allotment of 768 flats

Under the affordable housing policy of Haryana government, launched in 2016, realtors can develop affordable housing projects

Haryana government’s department of town and country planning (DTCP) on Tuesday put on hold the allotment of 708 affordable flats in a project in Sohna after it came to fore that all successful applicants were either from Sohna or had mentioned their address as Sohna, said officials in the know of the matter.

For representational purposes only. (Parveen Kumar/ HT File Photo)

The allotment of plots in affordable housing projects is done through an online portal by the DTCP. A senior DTCP official said around 51,000 individuals applied for these flats from across a wide range of geographies, which included the National Capital Region (NCR), but all successful applicants were from Sohna.

To probe the matter, Amit Khatri, director, town and country planning, on Tuesday issued an order putting on hold the allotment of flats to successful applicants and initiating an inquiry into the working of the online portal by the chief town planner, DTCP (IT&M). He shall submit a report in the next 10 days.

Under the affordable housing policy of Haryana government, launched in 2016, realtors can develop affordable housing projects but they have to sell flats at a cost decided by the government. The present rate of affordable flats is between ₹5,000 per square feet.

The order issued by Khatri on Tuesday said the draw of flats in projects under this policy was conducted online on the departmental e-draw portal. An e-draw for 708 units in Sector 36, Sohna, was conducted on January 27 for 51,586 shortlisted applicants. However, all successful beneficiaries turned out to be from Sohna town only.

The policy does not specify any preference for a particular town for the purpose of draw, Khatri clarified

When asked about the matter, Renuka Singh, senior town planner, Gurugram, said the discrepancy results was first observed by their office, and it was decided to look into the matter as all successful applicants had mentioned their address as Sohna.

“The result of the draw has been put on hold and a committee has been formed to look into the matter. It has been found that even residents of Delhi and Haryana, who had mentioned the name of town on their online application form as Sohna have been declared successful. This could be due to technical error in software,” she said.

BK Saini, chief town planner, IT, DTCP said that they have started the investigation in the matter. “A report on the matter will be submitted in 10 days,” he said.