DDA is corrupt, says PM

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 11. Now it is official: the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is corrupt. This candid admission has come from none other than the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, who has said there is need to take drastic measure to check ``rampant corruption, lack of accountability and absence of redressal mechanisms'' in DDA.

In a strongly-worded letter to the Union Urban Development Minister, Mr. Ananth Kumar, Mr. Vajpayee has directed that his the Ministry, in consultation with the DDA, draw up a time-bound action plan within two months to address systematically the problems of this organisation.

Highly placed sources in the Prime Minister's Office said Mr. Vajpayee, in his letter of October 8, has expressed serious concern at several problems of a generic nature being faced by DDA applicants -- brought to the notice of the PMO -- as well as the shortcomings in the mechanism for redressal of grievances.

Stating that a number of individual cases of a ``particular distressing'' nature concerning DDA applicants were brought to his notice, Mr. Vajpayee stressed the need for making full use of the e-governance system to ``enhance efficiency, transparency and elimination of subjectivity in the conduct of business by DDA''. He hoped that on completion of implementation of the action plan, the representations from the public on these systematic aspects would reduce sharply. Asserting that the PMO would no longer remain a mute spectator, Mr. Vajpayee said: ``This would be monitored by my office.''

It is understood that the PMO has started an analysis of the representations received from the public since 1999 regarding several key agencies and extensive public dealings. Mr. Vajpayee's letter follows after the PMO completed analysis of 967 representations on DDA received by it between January 1999 and June 2001. ``The objective is to identify the patterns in the representations, which may point to systemic problems in the agencies, rather than to identify individuals who may be at fault,'' Mr. Vajpayee clarified.

The PMO's analysis revealed that in view of the enormous response from the public for the allotment of a flat or plot in Delhi and the limited availability of land, there has been a long waiting period before the applicants have got the allotment. ``Consequently, there are thousands of applicants who are waiting for periods even beyond 20 years for a firm allotment,'' observed the report.

It pointed that prolonged delay in allotment of flats leads to certain inherent problems and has generated many representations for out-of-turn allotments and complaints. Similarly, a number of registrants also died during the endless wait, making it necessary for their registrants to be transferred to their legal heirs which is not being done at present, the PMO said.

On the other hand, there were many individuals who gave up hope and preferred to cancel their registrations and sought refund. ``As non-owning of property in Delhi was a condition for registrations, most applicants were residing in rented accommodation and kept changing residences during the waiting period. This involved frequent trips to the DDA offices to inform them of change of address and also to ensure that change had been incorporated in the DDA record,'' it said.

Identifying difficulties faced in post-allotment matters, the PMO said there were many petitioners complaining of delay in the issue of the demand-cum-allotment letters despite completing all formalities. An equally high number of representations were received regarding delay in the issue of possession letters or handling the possession of the allotted flat, it observed.

``The shabby manner in which the general public was treated was more evident in the cases of incorrect cancellations of the allotments even when DDA was totally at fault. A large number of allotments were cancelled as DDA had sent the allotment letters to wrong addresses even when the applicants had intimated the change in address,'' the PMO said.

``All these pleas for restoration of flat fell on deaf ears and it was only when the cases were referred from the PMO for a report that the issues were resolved. The registration was hurriedly restored and alternate flats allotted,'' it said.

According to the analysis, a significant number of petitions were also received with regard to delay in allotment of alternate plots. This was so even in cases where DDA was entirely at fault and had done double allotments or allotments in areas other than what was sought by the applicants.

Pointing to strange rules of the DDA, according to which the allotment is cancelled in case an applicant expires before taking possession, the analysis said: ``What follows is a nightmare for the legal heirs, which continues for years. This is the most troublesome area in DDA which needs urgent attention and should be resolved.''

Observing that almost all the petitions received in the PMO seemed to be redressable, it said: ``However, it was apparent from the reports sought from DDA that issues remained unresolved only due to the negative approach and callous attitude of its staff. Petitioners failed to get any relief even from the senior officials in the Department and they were being harassed by the lower staff.''

Referring to the perusal of the petitions and analysis of reports sought from DDA, the PMO said that cases were rejected arbitrarily. Interaction with petitioners and analysis of reports revealed that the grievances redressal mechanism appears to be extremely poor.

``Even when repeated similar aberrations were pointed out to DDA, no corrective mechanism was evolved. In many cases even the responsibility of the concerned personnel was not fixed,'' the analysis pointed out.

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