EWS homes under AUDA scanner

The Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) has learnt its lesson. Now that it is planning to give away 8,000 units constructed for the urban poor, authorities want to ensure that the residential units are not let out on rent or sold off to third parties.

For this, AUDA plans to form a special committee that will conduct a drive. In the past, AUDA had observed discrepancies in ownership of the residential units given out under housing for the urban poor.

For example, certain families give out their homes on rent, if they do not wish to move to the area where they have been allotted the same. In some of the cases, such residential units are even sold off to third parties.

“If we take a closer look, generally around 25% of housing for the urban poor is either sold off or given out on rent, meaning that the original owner does not shift to the house allocated to him. We want to avoid such cases. We will hence, form a committee and conduct a drive when we are ready to allocate these 8,000 residential units to the denizens,” said AUDA chairman Dharmendra Shah.

In the last 18 months, the AUDA has completed constructing nearly 6,000 residential units for EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) and another 8,000 units are under construction.

Totally, 11,500 houses have been constructed and allotted to denizens. These houses are situated in Nandanvan, Gokul, Vraj Nagari, Murlidhar, Vastrapur, Sardanagar, Ranip, Gopal, Gopal II, Vrundavan-1, Vrundavan-2, Vrajvihar, Giridhar and Krishnadham.