NEW DELHI: Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has decided to levy a penalty, ranging from 25-100% of the earnest money, to ensure only serious buyers apply for its new housing scheme that is likely to be announced in mid-June.

Officials said the step was being taken to avoid a repeat of what happened in 2014 when 50% of the flats were returned by allottees. However, resident welfare associations are not happy with the land-owning agency's decision.

To apply for the housing scheme in which DDA will put up 13,500 flats on sale, people will have to pay Rs 1 lakh for LIG and Rs 2 lakh for MIG/HIG flats as earnest money. No penalty will be levied on the earnest money if an applicant withdraws before the date of the draw of lots. "But they will have to forfeit 25% of the amount if they surrender the flats within 90 days after the draw of lots," said J P Aggarwal, principal commissioner, land disposal and housing, DDA. If a person surrenders within three months of issue of the demand letter, then he/she will lose 50% of the earnest money. "After this, there would be no exemption. If a person fails to pay the money for the flat allotted to him/her, the entire earnest money will be forfeited," said Aggarwal.

In an attempt to attract serious buyers, DDA had decided to increase the earnest money for MIG and HIG flats to Rs 5 lakh. But it was reduced to Rs 2 lakh following protests by residents.
Resident welfare associations are opposing the penalty clause. Last year, Delhi Residents' Welfare Associations Joint Front, an umbrella body of RWAs under the Bhagidari scheme, had written to then LG Najeeb Jung in this regard. "This is not a valid clause. If a person has a legitimate reason, then why should he be made to pay a penalty?" said Pankaj Agarwal, general secretary of the organisation.

S B Singh, a member of Lajpat Nagar III RWA, said that DDA doesn't allow people to give floor-wise preference. "If an old couple is allotted a third floor in a building that doesn't have a lift, then why should they be made to pay a penalty when they don't want the flat? DDA only allows people to give preference for the location," said Singh.

NEW DELHI: Kamaljeet Sehrawat was elected mayor of the south corporation on Friday. Addressing the newly-constituted House, she said that sanitation and e-governance would be her focus areas. She assured that latest techniques would be adopted to make the capital garbage-free.

Sehrawat said that digitisation would help weed out corruption and malpractice in various departments. "We will ensure that the steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan are implemented and Delhi is made garbage-free. The south corporation has already installed compactors in its central zone and the same will be replicated across all wards. Also, our main focus will be on e-governance—majority of services will be available online so that people do not have to make rounds of the municipal offices," she said.

Sehrawat had won from Dwarka B ward by a record margin of over 9,000 votes. The 44-year-old former vice-president of Delhi BJP unit also emphasised the need for a "coordination" among the political parties for a "cleaner and greener" Delhi.
"Both ruling and opposition parties should work together to achieve our target. We have been elected by the people and we must fulfil our promises," added Sehrawat. "Sanitation would be a focus area and we are going to improve our garbage management system by bringing in more mechanised sweepers. Our plan is to take more eco-friendly measures by enhancing capacity of waste-to-energy plants.

Earlier, Preety Agarwal, who was elected mayor of the north corporation on Thursday, announced that sanitation would be her "top priority" too. The east corporation will elect its mayor on Monday.