CAG reported that the Delhi government’s affordable housing scheme failed due to lack of planning

CAG criticized the Delhi government’s exercise to select beneficiaries who met the eligibility criteria for the scheme.

NEW DELHI: Delhi government’s affordable scheme to provide affordable housing to the city’s poor people, living in slum clusters failed according to the Comptroller and Auditor General‘s report on “Social, General and Economic Sectors (Non-Public Sector Undertakings) of Union Territory of Delhi” in the year ended March 2018.

The review of projects under the Delhi government’s affordable housing scheme for the urban poor under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission was one of the components of CAG‘s performance audit of various Delhi government departments.

The audit also revealed that all 14 housing projects conceptualized by Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) were limited to only 4 districts even though there were 461 of 675 targeted JJ clusters that need to be provided in situ rehabilitation. “Also, instead of small clusters evenly spread all over Delhi, housing projects with a large number of dwelling units were planned,” the report said.

CAG shared that the government could identify only 5,483 beneficiaries, of which only 1,864 were rehabilitated to the dwelling units constructed till August 2018.

CAG shared “Due to the delay in identifying beneficiaries, more than 90% of the 28,344 dwelling units completed till June 2018 at a cost of Rs. 1,101.4 crore were lying unallotted, unoccupied and vulnerable to deterioration. The objectives of the scheme remained unfulfilled even after 10 years of its launch and one year of its closure. This was mainly due to deficiency in planning and execution of projects and poor progress in the identification of beneficiarie.”

Follow and Connect with us: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram