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6K Delhiites Finally Get To Live In Own Houses, HC orders allotment of flats in 57 Dwarka societies By Sumit Kumar, Section Delhi Real Estate
After years of uncertainty triggered by a group housing scam, around 6,000 families across Delhi are finally close to moving into their dream society flats in Dwarka.
The Delhi High Court on Monday ordered allot- ments of flats in 57 societies where construction is complete, to members not involved in the Rs 4,000 crore scam unearthed in 2004. In the scam, former Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) officials, in connivance with builder mafia, had revived defunct societies by forging documents. Thereby they availed land from the DDA at concessional rates.  Flat allotments had been stayed after the CBI began probe into the scam. A major chunk of beneficiaries of the court order are middle class families. Many shifted to Dwarka on rent hoping to move into their dream society flat soon. Apart from the heavy strain of EMIs on the loan taken to buy the flat and the interest on it, many members are also paying maintenance charges as the houses are ready . Issuing directions to the RCS on the modalities to be followed for allotting flats to "genuine mem- bers", a Bench headed by Justice Manmohan Sarin said: "We are of the view that members and the newly inducted members having invested their hard earned money and have been waiting for long for allotment. It was necessary that the current im passe is ended at the earliest to prevent attrition of the flats by disuse." The Bench was of the view that thousands of in nocent persons should not suffer on account of the fraudulent act of a few. Six months' time The court entrusted the "gigantic" task of iden tifying the genuine members to RCS U.K. Vohra. His report will be later reviewed by a three-member High Court appointed committee headed by former judge Justice R.C. Chopra. Click on "Full Story" for more...
CBI DIG A.K. Malhotra and Additional Secretary (Land and Building) G.S. Meena are the two other members.
If the timeframe prescribed by the court is strictly adhered to, the whole allotment process is expected to be complete in six months' time. The Bench made it clear that the court had formed the review committee considering the past history of the RCS office where many officers were allegedly involved in the scam. "We are conscious of the fact that it was on account of complicity of former staff and officers of RCS that defunct and bogus societies passed on to the hands of builder mafia. The apprehensions if any on this account can be redressed by creation of a mechanism where the verification carried out by RCS is reviewed and approved by an independent committee," said the Bench. harish.nair@hindustantimes.com HOW THE SCAM UNFOLDED Many societies were declared `defunct' between 1989-90 due to non-conduct of elections or audit within a certain time frame or non submission of list of members for verification. These defunct societies, mostly in Dwarka, were purchased by builders who got them revived with the help of RCS officials using forged docu ments. They managed to get lands from DDA at concessional rates. Section 63 of the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act 1972 gives sweeping powers to the registrar to revive a society. Section 63 (3) says: "The reg istrar may cancel an order for the winding up of a cooperative society, at any time, in any case where, in his opinion, the society should continue to exist." This is the section that was used to bend rules. When a builder applied for revival of defunct society, which he had bought from the management committee, a fake inspection was held and inspection report was manipulated to recommend revival. Investigations by CBI show that during main accused Narayan Diwakar's tenure as the registrar, 87 societies were revived. This sudden spurt in revival was unprecedented. Source: HT, Aug-26-2008
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