DDA owes us over 20Kcr, says urban ` shelter board

The city administration’s Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board has claimed that the DDA owes it dues worth over ` 20,000 crore while other agencies, too, had to clear payments to it. In its annual report for 2013- 14, the DUSIB has claimed that various government agencies owed it a cumulative ` 22,670 crore for using its land. The DUSIB has reportedly written to the DDA, which functions under the Union government, to reimburse it ` 20,247 crore for utilising 807.857 acres of its land.

The report said that the issue regarding reimbursement of losses incurred by the DUSIB on account of its land allotted at interdepartmental rates instead of circle rates to various agencies, like the DMRC (` 399.95 crore), Delhi Waqf Board (` 86 lakh) and use of its land for BSUP projects under JNNURM (` 2,031 crore) has been raised time and again with the city government.

The DS UIB said its funds were inadequate to meet its revenue expenditure. During 2013- 14, the DUSIB’s total revenue receipts was only ` 1,414 lakh while revenue expenditure was ` 9,148 lakh. “In order to make the DUSIB a selfreliant body, there was an urgent need to create a cor- pus fund, the income from which may be utilised to meet its day- to- day expenditure,” the report said.

In a letter to DDA vicechairman, the DS UIB said around 18 properties belonging to the agency were used by the development authority without making any payments. The letter said that the DDA used 236.80 acres of land at N. G. Road, Rajouri Garden, which is estimated to be over ` 8,300 crore as per the circle rates at the time of transfer of land. Another 167 acres of land was procured by the DDA in the Wazirpur area worth ` 2,600 crore.

The DUSIB said that a total of 807 acres of land valued at ` 20,247 crore was procured from it by DDA. A senior officer said that the amount due from other agencies came to light when the DS UIB did its internal audit which showed that many agencies had used its land without making any payments.

The sources of revenue for the DUSIB are licence fees from tenements, institutional allotments, lease money and one- time charges for conversion of property to free- hold. The DUSIB said that the gap between revenue receipts and expenditure has been met through financial assistance in the form of grants from the Delhi government.