Forced to move into unfinished DDA flat, 61-yr-old fractures arm

All his life, Jagdish Ahuja, 61, had dreamt of living in his own house. The dream was fulfilled last week but it came with two fractures in his hand and a badly sprained shoulder.

All his life, Jagdish Ahuja, 61, had dreamt of living in his own house. The dream was fulfilled last week but it came with two fractures in his hand and a badly sprained shoulder.

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Ahuja, a small-time businessman, had got a three-bedroom flat in Mukherjee Nagar under the 2010 housing scheme of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). Though Ahuja has paid the full price for the flat, it is still incomplete and has no water or power connection.

Despite the lack of basic amenities, Ahuja was forced to move into his new house last week, as he could not afford to pay both the home loan EMI and rent for the house where he was living with his family.

Though he got the house painted and took a temporary power connection, the residential complex is in a mess because of ongoing construction and ditches and dug-up soil everywhere. Ahuja was going to the nearby market on Friday when he slipped on the wet soil and fell in a ditch right outside his first floor flat.

“There is muck and ditches all around and I just slipped on the mud and got badly hurt,” Ahuja said. He was immediately taken to a nearby nursing home where an X-ray revealed that his hand has been fractured at two places.

Ahuja is now worried about his 80-year-old mother and the children of his son who live in the same house.

“We have taken a power connection from the temporary connection given to the builder. We are buying drinking water and using groundwater for bathing and washing clothes,” said Raj Rani, Ahuja’s wife. “How long can one live without such basic amenities?”

“I was paying a rent of Rs. 30,000 along with an EMI of Rs. 61,000 every month. I’m not rich and couldn’t afford to shell out so much for an indefinite period,” he said.

Hindustan Times was the first to report that the DDA had allotted and taken full payment from most allottees of the Mukherjee Nagar multistory flats even though the complex, which has 336 flats, is still not ready to move in.

DDA, however, promises that the complex would be ready soon. “The flats are complete and people have started moving in. The little bit left on the infrastructure front is also being done speedily,” said a DDA spokesperson. “The whole work will be completed soon.”