DDA gets cracking on faulty kiosks

You cannot get information about lingerie or online dating at Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) headquarters anymore. A day after Hindustan Times reported that the six touch screen information kiosks at DDA’s headquarter Vikas Sadan is redirecting users to a private search site due to a glitch (Want lingerie? Go to DDA’s information kiosks), the problem has been rectified.

You cannot get information about lingerie or online dating at Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) headquarters anymore. A day after Hindustan Times reported that the six touch screen information kiosks at DDA’s headquarter Vikas Sadan is redirecting users to a private search site due to a glitch (Want lingerie? Go to DDA’s information kiosks), the problem has been rectified.

HT Image

The information kiosks, installed about five years ago at Vikas Sadan's reception hall, updates users about the status of allotments, payments or installments.

For more than a week, these kiosks were redirecting users to a private search site when they click on the option to visit the official DDA website.

The glitch, which had affected all the touch screen kiosks, was redirecting users to www.ddadelhi.com instead of www.ddadelhi.org.in.

The ‘unofficial’ website mainly contains information on private properties on sale and on rent. It also shows search results for everything else under the sun from holiday bookings to matchmaking and personal loans.

After the HT report, the DDA top brass moved into action and the systems department of the land development agency was asked to rectify the problem. However, it was not before afternoon that DDA officials started to solve the issue. By evening about half of the kiosks were taken care of.

“The problem was happening due to a virus in the system that somehow changed the URL and users were being redirected to an unofficial website,” said a DDA official who wished to remain anonymous.

“We don’t have a firewall or anti-virus application to secure our website from such virus attacks.” A DDA spokesman said, “We asked the systems department to rectify the problem as soon as we were informed about the problem.”

The touch screens are supposed to help get information about the status of allotment, payments, installments, etc. Consumers can key in allotment or registration number.