New Gujarat Housing Board draw within a month, says minister

Gujarat Cabinet minister for Road and Building Nitin Patel announced here today that the government would conduct a fresh draw within a month for more than 8,000 homes built by Gujarat Housing Board(GHB).
On the second day of Gujarat Assembly's budget session today, BJP MLA Bhushan Bhatt moved a 'short call notice' seeking answers about the recent goof-up in the online draw for GHB houses in four major cities, forcing Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel to cancel the draw on June 16.
On behalf of the government, Nitin Patel assured the house that a fresh draw would be conducted within a month.

"So far, the government alloted 1,07,218 houses through 13 draws, but no problem arose. When our CM learned about the technical problem during the recent draw, she immediately cancelled it in the larger interest of people.
"A fresh draw will be conducted within a month. This time,separate draws will be carried out for each of the four cities instead of a single draw," Patel assured.
Earlier, several applicants, whose name had not appeared in the winning list, alleged mass irregularities in draws for 8,493 houses in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat.

After widespread protests, the Gujarat CM cancelled the draw on June 16, claiming that it happened due to faulty software made by Dev Infotech Pvt Ltd.

Not satisfied with Nitin Patel's answer, Congress chief whip Balwantsingh Rajput asked him if irregularities were done in allotting homes, but Patel denied the allegations.
"No irregularities were done. We have also cancelled the work order given to Dev Infotech after the incident. Now, we have given the task to conduct the draw to national level government agency NIC," Patel said.
Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar joined the debate and asked Patel if action would be taken against GHB officials.
However, Patel gave a clean chit to the GHB. "For 8,493 houses, some 53,763 applications were received by the GHB. It was just a technical problem and we have already begun a probe. Since GHB has given all work to the agency (Dev Infotech) to conduct the draw, GHB officials are not directly involved," Patel said.