New Delhi:
Scores of affected people under a DDA residential scheme in Rohini on Friday 'gheraoed' its headquarters, demanding prompt execution of the 33-year- old housing plan by the urban development body.
Raising anti-DDA slogans, the agitators holding placards asked "why their plots have not been allotted even after more than three decades".
Incidentally, as the protest was being held outside the main entrance, DDA's new vice-chairman Balvinder Kumar held his first press conference inside after taking charge on January 23.
DDA had launched the Rohini Residential Scheme in 1981. Out of the original over 80,000 applicants, about 55,000 have received their plots while remaining over 25,000 are still waiting. The protesters belonged to the latter group.
Kumar ascribed the delay in allotment to opposition from farmers who "owned the land".
"The current situation is that of a deadlock between the DDA and the farmers who owned the land and we are trying to break through that impasse but no headway has been made so far in that direction," Kumar told reporters.
Four members of the agitators later also met the vice-chairman and made a representation to him and apprised him of the situation, saying "some of them have died waiting to get their dream plots".
"I filed a PIL in this regard in 2009 in the Delhi High Court. The legal wrangling began after the farmers, who have been compensated after acquiring the land, last year asked for quashing the acquisition notification for asking payment for higher prices," Rahul Gupta, one of the affected registrants said.
53-year-old Gupta said, "We got very negative response" from the DDA. He is also one of the original registrants under the scheme from 1981. "We have been told that the matter is sub-judice. And, that if I still seek justice, I must appeal in the Supreme Court as the farmers are unrelenting," Gupta said.
"But, I smell corruption here. They (DDA) want to sell the remaining land to builders on higher prices," he alleged.
DDA, however, said they want to resolve the matter as soon as possible.