Lottery today for flats built on land seized from Atiq under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana

Lottery today for flats built on land seized from Atiq under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana

Construction of 76 affordable housing units intended to provide accommodation to the underprivileged is nearing completion on the land confiscated from the slain mafia-politician Atiq Ahmed in Sangam city, said the officials concerned.

The lottery for allotment of these 76 flats being constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana at Lukerganj will be taken out on Friday. After all the scrutiny and objections, the lottery of the applicants finally found eligible will be held at 2 pm in the auditorium of Allahabad Medical Association located on Stanley Road on June 9, they added.

A total of 6,030 people had applied for these flats in the housing scheme. The Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) had also invited objections in the run-up to the lottery phase. After disposing of the objections on Wednesday, the PDA finally announced the date of the lottery. The list of 1,154 eligible candidates can be seen on the notice board of the Ground Floor of Indira Bhawan that houses the PDA office besides the notice boards of the district collectorate and DUDA as well as on the official website of PDA— https://pdaprayagraj.in/.

After the lottery, chief minister Yogi Adityanath is expected to hand over the keys of the flats to the allottees. Preparations for this are being made on a war footing. Lights are being installed in the flats as well as stone chips have already been laid for the construction of the main approach road to the flats. PDA claims that all the work will be completed in a week.

It is worth mentioning that on December 26, 2021, the chief minister had laid the foundation stone for the housing project on this 1,731-square-metre site in the Lukerganj area of the city.

In October 2021, PDA had prepared a blueprint for construction of houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) on this plot of land that was freed from Atiq Ahmed as part of a crackdown against him and his gang. A tender had also been issued for construction of this housing complex.

A total of 75 flats have been built in multi-storey buildings with each flat built in an area of 34.09 square metres. A community hall and a park have also been built in the residential complex.

According to officials, this project had been taken up by the District Urban Development Authority (DUDA) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), and the flats have been built in two blocks.

On the night of April 15, Atiq, along with his younger brother Khalid Azeem aka Ashraf were shot dead by three assailants posing as journalists when the two brothers were being taken to Motilal Nehru (Colvin) Divisional Hospital for a court mandated medical examination while in police custody. Atiq was accused in the 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal and in the killing of a key witness in that case, lawyer Umesh Pal, who was gunned down along with his two police guards on February 24.