Curation Team
GURUGRAM: Govt’s online portal for drawing of lots in affordable housing schemes will directly cross-check and verify applicant details with information in the Aadhaar card to make the process more transparent and eliminate chances of duplication or manipulation.
Officials of the department of town and country planning (DTCP) said on Friday that the updated portal – called TCP Haryana – will fetch applicant details such as name, address and mobile number from the Aadhaar card.
This will prevent manual data entry errors and manipulation while ensuring that only eligible candidates are considered for allotments.
The move comes in response to irregularities uncovered in the 2023 housing draw of Aster Avenue 36 in Sector 36, Sohna.
During the draw of lots for 702 flats at the society, those with addresses given as ‘Sohna City’ were considered eligible for the scheme, limiting the pool to 2,200 entries out of 51,000 applicants. This was blamed on a technical error.
Cross-checking with Aadhaar would do away with chances of such errors, officials said. The Aster Avenue draw was cancelled after an internal probe, and a fresh draw was conducted. But 26 applicants were found to have been repeated in both the shortlists, raising more concerns about fairness and the integrity of the system.
“Going forward, the Aadhaar-linked system will automatically populate the applicant’s details and verify if they have previously been allotted flats under any affordable housing scheme. If found ineligible, their application will be auto-rejected by the system,” said Renuka Singh, senior town planner, DTCP.
“All past applicant data from earlier schemes is now being integrated into this upgraded software,” Singh said.
Additionally, the system will prevent any duplicate entries and ensure that no one can bypass eligibility rules. The new mechanism is expected to significantly reduce the administrative burden and potential biases associated with manual data handling.
The Aster Avenue 36 matter is currently pending before the Punjab and Haryana high court, and the next hearing is scheduled for July 9.
Applicants who were declared successful in the original draw have yet to receive refunds, while allotment letters for 702 flats drawn in the second round remain on hold because of ongoing legal proceedings.
