Delhi: BJP and AAP governments allow 46,000 flats to remain unoccupied

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM), the UPA government headed by late Dr Manmohan Singh had approved the construction of 52,000 flats in Delhi for economically backward residents and slum dwellers.

The cost of construction of the clusters of flats in places like Dwarka, Bawana, Sultanpuri, Jahangirpuri, Ghosa etc was estimated to be Rs 2,415 crore. As many as 35,744 flats were actually completed and were ready for allotment, but the Delhi government under AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) and the BJP-led Central government failed to allot them until December 2024.

Both governments at the state and Centre were apparently not keen to allot the flats and give due credit to the Congress-led UPA government. They dragged their feet until 2020, when the Centre issued a notification to allot the flats to migrant workers and economically backward residents.

The AAP government, however, objected and sought to allot the flats to people living in jhuggis and jhopdis (makeshift hutments in slums). In the event, the dispute was never resolved and the flats, over 30,000 completed and 16,000 more under construction, were never allotted.

Delhi High Court intervened in September 2023, and ordered the setting up of a high-power committee comprising officials of the Delhi and Union governments, to resolve the issue.

Ordering the allotments to be expedited, the high court observed that depriving the poor and the homeless of houses built with taxpayers’ money was both unfortunate and unfair. Justice required the allotments to be made as soon as possible, the high court added. 

When it was reported to the high court that no action had been taken despite the order, it once again passed an order on 10 July 2024 to expedite allotments. Addressing a press conference at the Delhi Congress office on Monday, Congress leader Rajiv Shukla claimed that only 4,833 of the proposed 52,344 flats have been allotted in the last 10-odd years.

The condition of the 30,303 flats which were completed, and the 16,600 which were under construction but were abandoned are now poor owing to non-allotment and lack of maintenance. Delhi Congress also screened a video film showing some of the completed flats, and sound-bytes from people living in the area.

While the Union government has been demolishing jhuggis, jhopdis and slums in Delhi and rendered lakhs of people homeless in the past few years, the AAP government proved to be no better, and allowed nearly 46,000 ready-to-occupy flats to go waste, Shukla said. “Both these parties seem to believe that Delhi was a jungle before 2014 and everything that has happened in Delhi — from flyovers to the Metro to highways — were all built after 2014.”