Thousands of applicants of the Delhi Development Authority’s 2017 housing scheme surrendered their flats after allotment, with some citing dislike of the location and the size of the homes as the reason, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister of State (Independent charge) Hardeep Singh Puri told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

In response to a question by Amar Singh, Mr. Puri informed the House that of the 12,617 flats offered by the DDA in the 2017 scheme, 4,711 flats were surrendered within 45 days of the draw of lots held in November that year.

“In majority of cases, the applicants have not provided any specific reasons for surrender. However, some of the reasons as reported are that applicants did not like the location of the allotted flats and that the size of the allotted flats was small,” the reply stated.

In order to address the issues, the DDA had taken some corrective steps, including starting a free shuttle bus service from the nearest bus terminal and Metro station at Narela, Siraspur and Rohini Sector 34 and 35 starting in December 2018 for the residents. In addition, DDA had allotted 23 shops for daily needs to NAFED at Dwarka Sector-23B, Rohini Sector-34 and Narela G-2 and G-8. It had also handed over porta cabins to Mother Dairy and Safal for outlets at Narela.