Delhi govt to allot all EWS flats by Sept

By the end of June 2013, the Delhi government hopes to allocate at least 7,000 houses meant for economically weaker sections (EWS) out of the around 14,000 flats built over five years ago. These flats were built over five years ago and still remain unused because of non-allocation. However, with the assembly election round the corner, the state government has expedited the allocation process. Before September 2013, the state government aims to complete allocation of the remaining flats. Urban Development Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely told that the housing scheme would pick up pace over the next few months. In order to identify beneficiaries of the housing scheme, the state government is learnt to have started surveys in jhuggi jhopri (JJ) clusters across the city. The government planned to allot 3,000 flats, of the 14,000 houses meant for EWS families, to the urban poor, while the remaining were meant for residents of rehabilitated JJ clusters. Reports indicate that the duplicity of identification and address documents prompted authorities to stall the scheme. The government, which decided to accept documents recognised by the Election Commission of India (ECI), realised that in many cases the applicant had either moved out or his present situation had changed.