On Monday, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri told the media that the Delhi government should hand over the unassigned 35,000 homes constructed under the Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojan (RRAY) in 2007-10 to the Centre.

He told the media that these homes must be made available to the central government for a new scheme - Affordable Rental Housing Complexes. The Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojana (RRAY) is a centrally-sponsored scheme, executed between 2007 and 2010, by the then Delhi government as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Rehabilitation Mission.

The minister said most of the apartments are lying vacant and also a building block with 32 houses meant for economically weaker sections had collapsed on February 11.

Asked about the issues for the building collapse, the Delhi government had in writing said that there was large-scale theft and pilferage, including steel, during the Covid-19 pandemic. In other words, this was a case of theft by miscreants which lead to the damage to the structure of those apartments, he said. The Delhi government had additionally notified that a third party quality audit was taken up during the development.

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