The Hindu : New Delhi News : Uproarious scenes at DDA meet over school plots

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 23, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Uproarious scenes at DDA meet over school plots

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI, NOV. 22. The Delhi Development Authority meeting chaired by the Lieutenant-Governor, B.L. Joshi, here today witnessed uproarious scenes as the elected Members unanimously opposed tabling of the agenda for auction of school plots on the ground that it would make education expensive and take it beyond the reach of the ordinary citizens. The members also alleged large-scale corruption in allotment of over 400 institutional plots, conduct of mini draws and allotment of a residential plot and demanded a probe and action against guilty officials.

The meeting, which lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours, saw the elected members -- MLAs Mahabal Mishra, Zile Singh Chauhan and Mange Ram Garg, and Councillor Virender Kasana -- join hands to oppose the proposal to auction all school plots. Stating that it would be tantamount to sale of education in Delhi, Mr Mishra vehemently opposed the proposal and called for continuing with the old method of allotting school plots to the eligible societies.

Mr Mishra also said allotments of those schools should be cancelled who do not agree to the condition of providing free or concessional education to a certain percentage of underprivileged children. Seeing the protest of the elected members, the Lieutenant Governor assured that the matter would be reconsidered.

The Members also sought an enquiry into the allotment of over 400 institutional plots from 2001 till date. Citing an example, they said a school plot has been allotted to a society on a 9 metre road in violation of the DDA policy. Further, the same society -- P.D. Memorial Educational and Medical Society -- had also been allotted three other plots, Mr Mishra alleged in the meeting. Here again the protest by the Members compelled Mr Joshi to state that he would order a probe into the matter. Besides, he also promised to enquire into the allotment of a 400 metre residential plot to a man in Vasant Kunj, whose allotment had been refused by the authority itself.

The Lieutenant-Governor also ordered a probe into the conduct of "mini draws'' whereby, the members had alleged, prime plots on main roads had been handed over to property dealers by certain DDA officials in the name of allotment of alternative plots and in violation of the guidelines issued by Central Vigilance Commission in 1998. The members questioned if the Vice-Chairman or the Principal Commissioner were empowered to bypass the authority decisions and conduct draws as per their own free will.

The issue of violation of DDA's recruitment rule -- which clearly states that only Indian Administrative Service and DANICS officials can be taken on deputation in DDA -- was also raised at the meeting with the members demanding to know how efforts were being made to "absorb'' a U.P. Cadre official into the organisation. Stating that the move had a demoralising effect on the Delhi cadre officials, they also accused some senior officials of DDA of misleading the Lieutenant-Governor in the matter.

The meeting also saw the members seek details of how over Rs 500 crores had been spent by DDA in the past five years under the head of "Horticulture'' and how in planned to spend the huge amount of money allocated for the purpose till 2010. And when the issue of cadre review of Horticulture was said the Members said while the Engineering Department has had three or four reviews, the Ministerial cadre, the Planning wing or the Surveyor cadres are yet to get even one.

On the proposal to increase the Floor Area Ratio for clubs and super speciality hospitals, the members said the parking norms as demanded by the Supreme Court should first be made and their implementation assured. Also, they said, the FAR for hospitals should only be increased if they provide free or concessional treatment to the agreed percentage of patients.

The Members also sought a monthly meeting of the authority with or without any agenda to discuss matters of general and public interest and Mr Chauhan demanded that they be consulted on preparation of the Master Plan 2021 since DDA was only being driven by the profit-motive now and was ignoring its social obligations.

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