903 of 6,000 applicants eligible for 76 PMAY houses on Atiq Ahmed’s land in Prayagraj

PRAYAGRAJ: Out of over 6,000 applicants who had applied for the allotment of houses being built by the Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) on the land freed from the possession of gangster-turnedpolitician Atiq Ahmed in Lukarganj area of the city, more than 5,000 have been found ineligible.
According to PDA officials, they had received 6,030 applications and only 903 of them have been found eligible to take part in the lottery to be held for the allotment of 76 these houses being built under the Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana (PMAY) by the authority.
“The District Urban Development Agency (DUDA), entrusted with the responsibility of completing the verification of those who had applied for the flats, found that 85% of applicants did not fit the criteria. DUDA has given us a list of 903 applications but we have asked them to give us the details pertaining to the criteria based on which the applications were rejected,” PDA secretary Ajit Kumar Singh told TOI.
The PDA has constructed two blocks on the land measuring 1731 sqm which are ground plus three-storeybuildings. While block A has 36 flats, block B has 40. The state government had acquired this land in September 2021 and foundation stone of the project was laid by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in December 2021.
A registration fee of Rs 5,160 was charged for the purchase of the flat being built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, which is an initiative by the Government of India in which affordable housing is provided to the urban poor.
The PDA had collected Rs 3. 14 crore as the registration fee. Now, it would be refunding the fee to those found ineligible.