Chief Minister of Gujarat, Anandiben Patel has cancelled the allotment of Gujarat Housing Board (GHB) 8040 residential units which was conducted on 15th June 2014. The draw of lots was cancelled after the protesters claimed irregularities in the draw.
The decision was taken by CM after being informed about the software glitches that led to the errors in random selection of applications for the allotments. The information was shared by additional chief secretary, urban development department, G R Aloria. The disappointed applicants who were not allotted any houses went on protest against the board demanding the cancellation of the draw.
GHB received a total of 65,000 applications for 8,040 MIG and LIG houses that were to be built by the GHB across the state. The draw of lots was held on Sunday, 15th June in in Rajkot to decide the beneficiaries of the affordable housing. The houses were In Ahmedabad, 1,568 houses in Naranpura, 544 in Hathijan and 472 homes in Chainpur are to be built under the scheme. Rest of the homes were to be built in Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat.
The government-owned Gujarat Informatics Limited (GIL) had asked the Dev Information Technology Company Limited who developed the software to review the functioning and fix the glitches. The Dev ITCL has also admitted a glitch in the software. This all was mentioned in the report which was sent to the chief minister’s office and led to the cancellation of the draw.
According to the protesters, most of the beneficiaries were among the 27% applicants who applied for the scheme online. The rest 73% of the applicants who applied for the scheme by submitted their applications and payment offline physically were almost ignored. Quota rules of the reserved categories were also ignored. In some cases, the one person or his close family member has been allotted more than one house, adding to the irregularities in draw.