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1.
One of the most important events of AWHO was held on 12 Jan
2008, the draws for the Dwarka Scheme. Against a total of
648 Dwelling Units which are to be constructed, we received
an overwhelming response of more than 17,000 applications.
This response was more than what we had ever expected. Most
of the applications were received two weeks before the last
day of receipt of applications ie before13 Aug 07. We were
therefore receiving almost 600 to 800 applications a day.
This put a great strain on AWHO in handling so many applications
daily and receiving bank drafts and giving receipts. Large
number of applications came by hand. Due to this large rush
the Security Staff in Kashmir House could not handle so many
people entering the complex, and therefore the applications
were received at the gate itself. AWHO had put two counters
to receive the applications. People were bringing their application
forms even till the last day of the scheme. Some applicants
missed the deadline of submitting the applications for the
Spot Scheme, even though their Bank Drafts and application
forms were ready much earlier than the closing date. They
had brought the forms personally by hand but came a day late.
As a matter of interest some details of registrants are shown
in this News Letter.
2. Dwarka is a special scheme as very large number of personnel
are keen to settle down in Delhi. It is after 25 years that
AWHO was able to get land in Dwarka after constant meetings
and liaison with the Ministers, Lt Governors of Delhi and
many DDA Chairmen. Ultimately AWHO managed to secure 4 acres
of land in Sector 22 and 6.6 acres of land in Sector 23. Since
the two pieces of land are well situated and very near to
the airport, Metro Railway Station of Sector 22 and also near
to the proposed Inter State Bus Terminus in Sector 22, the
demand was overwhelming.
3. Since the closing date of the Spot Scheme, everyone was
anxious about the date of the draw. AWHO had a stupendous
task in feeding all the data into the computer, checking all
the forms, getting in touch with the applicants when there
were doubts/deficiencies in the application forms and other
multifarious activities. Initially we had planned to conduct
the draw in end Nov/beginning Dec 07, but in spite of working
even on Saturdays and Sundays, we could only complete the
paper work by end December itself. The date and time of the
draw was then finalized and intimation given wherever possible.
Notices were put up on the Notice Boards of CSDs, MI Rooms,
ECHS and Clubs in Delhi and the NCR and also uploaded on our
website. Expecting a large attendance during the draw, it
was decided to conduct the draw in the Auditorium of the Army
Public School, Dhaula Kuan. Accordingly, all the arrangements
were made in the Army Public School for the event. The APS
Management was very helpful and we are thankful to them for
their assistance.
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4. There
were lot of apprehensions regarding the transparency and fairness
of the draw and therefore the AG (Chairman) Lt Gen Thomas
Mathew, PVSM, AVSM and the DGDC&W Lt Gen IJ Koshy, AVSM
were very concerned and directed AWHO to make sure that the
draw was absolutely fair and transparent.
5. The types of doubts which the public had were many. People
said that allotment had already been done to various people
and the draw was only a cover up. Some people said that the
computer software is 'doctored' and already many names have
been fed into the software for allotment to senior officers.
One officer had the audacity to say, while travelling in the
Army Bus in Delhi, that he had paid money in lacs to AWHO
and his name was definitely going to come for allotment. Thank
God his name is nowherein the allotment zone, otherwise people
would have believed him no matter what. A very senior retired
officer from Panchkula rang up the AG (Chairman) to say that
there are rumours in Panchkula that AWHO has already done
the allotment to some of the people as desired and the balance
Dwelling Units only will be put up in the computer draw for
allotment. When people were told that AWHO picks up people
from the audience to feed the code numbers in to the computer
for the draw, they said that AWHO has planted people in the
audience who will fill only those code numbers into the computer
which had been earlier preplanned. So you can see there is
no end to peoples' imagination, no matter how absurd it may
be.
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6.
Though AWHO is a highly transparent organization and never gets
involved in such activities and has always been fair in its
dealings with the allottees, but considering the illogical and
preposterous views being expressed by various quarters, it was
decided to make doubly sure that the allotment is as fair and
transparent as ever. Normally for such draws a Board of officers
is detailed from the AG's Branch. However, this time the AG
directed that the Presiding Officer be detailed from outside
the AG's Branch and accordingly Brig KK Tiku, SM from the Engr-in-Chief's
Branch was detailed as the Presiding Officer. The AG also suggested
that one of the members of the Board should be an expert in
computers and accordingly Lt Col SK Kapur from the Cyber Security
Cell of the Sig Dte was detailed. The third member was Col Virendra
Singh of the Dte. Rtg 5 (OR), AG's Branch.
7. The whole Board was directed to report to AWHO ten days in
advance of the draw and to check all the lists of the registrants
and also the computer software. During these ten days the Board
did a number of dummy draws to satisfy themselves of the neutrality
of the software. They also asked for a list of all the senior
officers from Brig and above who had applied for the Dwarka
Scheme. In subsequent dummy draws they correlated and checked
that no senior officer's name was coming continuously higher
up in the seniority list of the draw, and also it was not appearing
in the same seniority number. They checked all aspects and procedures
for ten days. The computers were then taken to the auditorium
of the Army Public School on Friday 11 Jan 2008 and the system
was set up for the draw to be held the next day ie Saturday
12 Jan 2008. Before leaving for the night, the computers were
locked inside a box. The locks were sealed and the keys were
taken by the Board of Officers. Next morning the Board of Officers
arrived at 9 am and checked the locks and that the seals were
intact and then only removed the seals and opened the box and
took out the computers. Thereafter all actions as necessary
were taken by the Board and doubly ensured that the draws were
done in an absolutely fair manner.
8. To further ensure fairness of the draw the AG himself was
present during the draw. The Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen
ML Naidu, PVSM, AVSM, YSM was also requested to be present which
he had very kindly consented. In addition an independent observer,
retired senior officer, Ex QMG Lt Gen VG Patankar, PVSM, UYSM,
VSM was also requested to be present. All Headquarters Commands
were also requested to send an independent observer to attend
the draw, and a rep from Headquarter Western Command Col DS
Nagil did come and was present during the draw.
9. On the day of the draw AWHO had laid out 16 tables outside
the APS Auditorium. On these tables were laid out the lists
of the 17,168 applicants. The personnel coming to attend the
draw were required to check their name, types of Dwelling Units
applied for, and other particulars of theirs to satisfy themselves
that there were no errors in the data which had been fed into
the computers. They were also requested to sign the attendance
register. The response to the attendance was overwhelming. Not
only the entire auditorium and the balcony was completely full,
but people were standing on the sides too. When the procedure
for the draw commenced, the doors were closed and a large number
of people had to wait outside. Tea and coffee had been arranged
by AWHO for all which kept the chill away.
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10.
Initially a briefing was given by the MD AWHO on various aspects
of the scheme and also the method of conduct of the draw and
also various precautions which AWHO had taken. Questions raised
by the audience were suitably answered. Thereafter the Presiding
Officer of the Board, Brig KK Tiku, gave a detailed briefing
on how the Board was doing their task for the last 10 days.
Then Lt Col SK Kapur from the Cyber Security Cell of the Sig
Dte, gave out details of how the software had been checked.
When all were satisfied, it was then proposed to conduct some
dummy draws before the final draw was done.
11. 12 numerical nos (called "Seed Numbers") were
to be fed into the computer to get the draw. For selecting these
"Seed Numbers" at random, individuals attending the
draw were called from the audience one by one on the stage.
Tambola numbers from 1 to 100 were put inside a bag which was
used for taking out random numbers by the audience. So one by
one 12 members from the audience came on the stage and picked
out one number each from the bag containing the Tambola numbers.
These "Seed Numbers" were then fed into the computer
for taking out a dummy draw. The computer took about three minutes'
time to jumble the numbers and to come out with a list giving
different seniority numbers to the registrants. These random
seniority numbers were then displayed on a large screen placed
on the stage of the hall. It was shown to the audience as to
how randomly the computer had selected the numbers in giving
seniority.
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12. Thereafter
it was explained to the audience that the computers Algorithm
changes every fraction of a second, and even if the same "Seed
Numbers" were fed in the computer again the seniority
list in the draw would turn out to be different. After explaining
to the audience, they were asked whether they would like to
send 12 more people to take out 12 more "Seed Numbers"
or would they like to repeat the previous "Seed Numbers"
as entered earlier. Having been fully satisfied with the functioning
of the software, the audience suggested that the same "Seed
Numbers" be fed again for the second dummy draw. Accordingly,
the same "Seed Numbers" were again fed into the
computer and the second dummy draw was done. Again the computer
took another three minutes to give the results. Both the results
of the first dummy draw and the second dummy draw were then
compared and shown to the audience and it was proved that
the two results were entirely different.
13. Then the audience were asked whether to conduct a third
dummy draw or to go ahead and do the final draw. Having been
satisfied with the fairness and neutrality of the software,
the audience decided not to do a third dummy draw, but to
go ahead and do the final draw.
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14.
For the final draw again 12 members from the audience were called
onto the stage to take out 12 different "Seed Numbers"
from the Tambola bag. These numbers were then fed into the computer
for the final draw. The computer took another three minutes
to jumble the numbers and then came out with a final result.
This was then displayed to all the audience on the big screen
on the stage as the Final Result.
15. At any one time only 20 names could be projected on the
screen termed as one page. Since there were more than 17,000
applicants it would take 900 pages to be displayed one by one
to cover the entire spectrum of the registrants. This would
take considerable time, even if each page on the screen was
exposed for approximately 15 seconds. To overcome this problem
10 independent computers had been laid out on one side of the
hall with 10 operators operating them. The audience was requested
to go to any of the computers and give their registration numbers
to the computer operators who would then show the seniority
number to the registrants. Since more than 2000 people had come
to witness the draw it took about two hours time to let everybody
know what their seniority was. AWHO staff and the Members of
the Board remained in the auditorium upto 1700 hrs to attend
to people who even came back after lunch to check out more details.
16. The above procedure and the meticulous work and tremendous
effort put in by AWHO, to do an absolutely fair and transparent
draw, was highly appreciated by all. AWHO thanks all the Board
Members and all those personnel from AWHO staff who took part
in conducting this draw successfully. AWHO specially thanks
the Adjutant General (Chairman) and the DGDC&W for their
guidance and suggestions on how to make sure that the draw was
absolutely transparent and fair.
17. We are also grateful to the Vice Chief of the Army Staff,
for having kindly agreed to attend the draw and remaining present
through out the proceedings.
18. Our thanks also to Lt Gen VG Patankar, Ex QMG for having
readily agreed to be an independent observer to oversee the
conduct of the draw.
19. Last of all, but not the least, our thanks to the AUDIENCE
who willingly and INTELLIGENTLY questioned and participated
in the draw and clarified all the doubts and misgivings which
many people had.
20. Now coming to the progress of works in our various projects.
We have some good news on the projects which had been causing
us concern for a considerable time.
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| 21.
The NOIDA 82 project is now beginning to show signs of completion.
Final letters are being issued to the registrants. Handing over
of dwelling units has commenced in March 2008. The Dwelling
Units are being handed over in phases, since we have 1010 Dwelling
Units to hand over. The final instalments of payments are also
being asked for in phases; so those whose Dwelling Units will
be handed over later, are being asked to pay the final instalments
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22.
Greater NOIDA Project Phase I has been completed. The letters
for payment of final instalments have been issued. Handing over
of Dwelling Units will commence very shortly. Construction of
Phase II is proceeding as per schedule. Tender Action for Phase
III is in progress. The tenders are likely to be issued soon.
We hope to commence Phase III work by middle of this year.
23. Final Statement of Accounts for the Phase I of Pune Project
have also been sent to the allottees. Handing over of Dwelling
Units is likely to commence by Apr/May 08. Preparation of tenders
for Phase II is in progress. We hope to commence construction
of Phase II by Sep 2008.
24. After lot of cajoling and pushing the contractors, the Panchkula
Sector 20 project is now nearing completion. Handing over of
the Dwelling Units is likely to commence by May/Jun 08. By the
time the handing over of the Dwelling Units is completed the
Club and Swimming Pool and also the Community Hall will be ready.
Arboriculture work is also being progressed simultaneously.
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25.
The Adjutant General, Lt Gen Thomas Mathew, PVSM, AVSM was kind
enough to lay the Foundation Stone of the Panchkula Sector 27
Project on 19 Jan 08. The tender has been accepted and the work
has since commenced. Seeing the activity of AWHO in the area,
other builders nearby have also now started progressing their
works/projects.
26. For Mohali, the tie up with the Ansals for 30 acres of land
has already been done. Further progress is on for ultimately
getting the land handed over to AWHO.
27. Secunderabad Phase IV has since been completed and Final
Statement of Accounts are being issued to the allottees. Handing
over is likely to commence by Apr/May 08. Phase V of the Project
has already commenced on 06 Jul 07 and the work is progressing
satisfactorily.
28. Construction of Lucknow Tyagi Vihar Phase II- Project is
proceeding well and is going as per schedule. The work is likely
to be completed by Aug/Sep 08. The visitors to the site have
appreciated the designs of the Dwelling Units and the quality
of work, for which we convey our appreciation to the Contractor,
the Architect, the Project Director and their teams.
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29.
The Gurgaon Sector 49 project is proceeding as per schedule.
Another good news for the allottees is that the route of the
Metro has been realigned. From Sushant Lok the Metro will go
via Sector 56 (alongside AWHO project) to Sohna Road and then
turn towards Rajiv Chowk in Gurgaon on the NH-8 highway. The
Metro will pass right in front of our complex, 5 minutes walking
distance to the nearest Metro Station.
30. Due to certain technical problems the project on the Silver
Sand Island in Cochin is being delayed indefinitely. The project
will be progressed only once the technical hitches are resolved.
31. In Bangalore, plans for 11 acres of land have been finalized
and tender action is in hand. However, for 50 acre plot of land,
there is a hold up since the alignment of the road passing through
our plot has yet not been finalized by the Govt. For the Whitefield
Project we have already appointed the Architect and the planning
has commenced.
32. There are four construction projects going on in Jaipur.
Two are normal AWHO projects and two are Jai Jawan Awas Yojna
Projects. Of the two main projects, Phase IV has been completed
and handing over of Dwelling Units will commence soon. The second
project termed Phase V is under construction and the work is
progressing satisfactorily. The project is likely to be completed
by Jun 2010.
33. The first Jai Jawan Project at Jaipur is complete. The inauguration
of the Project was done by the previous COAS Gen JJ Singh, PVSM,
AVSM, VSM, ADC on 31 Aug 07 and now handing over is going on.
Incidently the Foundation Stone of the Project was also laid
by Gen JJ Singh on 07 Oct 05 and AWHO had promised the previous
COAS that we would have the inauguration also done by him before
he retires, which promise we have kept and got the inauguration
done during his tenure. The Station HQs in Jaipur have been
actively involved and we hope the families in the Complex will
benefit tremendously under the care of the Station Headquarters.
Since this is the first Jai Jawan Project there are bound to
be some teething troubles in the beginning, but we are sure
they will all be sorted out and the families of Jawans and JCOs
living in the Complex will be fully satisfied. The second Jai
Jawan Project in Jaipur is also well under way. We still have
a large waiting list of 274 applicants. We are negotiating for
some more land on the Ajmer highway and possibly the next project
may come up there after some time.
34. The third Jai Jawan Project has commenced in Pune. The Foundation
Stone of the Project was laid by the previous COAS Gen JJ Singh
on 12 Sep 07. We hope to complete the project by Dec 2009.
35. The fourth Jai Jawan Project is planned for Belgaum. The
Ex COAS, Gen JJ Singh also laid the foundation stone of this
project on 14 Sep 07. Planning is in progress.
36. Another Jai Jawan Project has been planned in Allahabad.
The scheme has already been advertised. A total of 144 units
are being constructed. We already have 83 applications for the
project. Hence those interested to settle down in Allahabad
should apply fast before the vacancies get filled up. As has
been seen in previous projects, people tend to keep waiting
undecided and finally when they do decide to join the scheme,
it is already too late. The construction plans have already
been passed by the Allahabad Development Authority and preparation
of tenders is in progress. We hope to start construction by
Jun 2008.
37. The project in Nainital (Khurpatal) is likely to start soon.
Tenders for the project are likely to be issued by Apr/May 2008
and we hope to start construction by middle of this year.
38. For Dwelling Units in hill stations, we have not yet been
able to make any progress. State Govts are not giving any land
to AWHO. The private parties offering land in Himachal Pradesh
are only interested in selling agricultural land and are not
willing to get the land use changed from agricultural to residential
through the State Govt. Efforts however are continuing to obtain
land for these projects. Those registrants who do not want to
wait any longer are welcome to pull out from the schemes.
39. There has been a little set back in the Kolkata Project
again. The contractor executing the main work had financial
problems and could not proceed with the work. Hence the contract
has been terminated. Fresh tenders are now being floated and
we hope to recommence the work shortly. The sewage treatment
plant is already complete and the external services are in progress.
Hopefully the project will be completed by beginning next year.
Our apologies to the registrants for this unfortunate delay.
40. AWHO has now grown into a big organisation. The construction
activity is double than what it used to be a few years ago.
The officers and staff have since become very busy. With more
projects come more registrants; it means more queries on AWHO,
and more personal visits by the applicants to AWHO offices.
All this is putting additional strain. We have therefore opened
a reception office for handling all queries and payments. All
the registrants are therefore requested to kindly get all their
information/clearing of doubts from the reception office itself
and not to go to other AWHO offices for such information, unless
it is absolutely necessary.
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41. Land
has become a scarce commodity. The State Govts are not now
giving land to AWHO as they used to do earlier, but are auctioning
their lands to earn more revenue. Hence to keep the tempo
going we are taking all help from the HQ Commands, Areas and
Sub Areas in tackling the State Govts in giving some land
for our projects. We are also actively pursuing purchase of
land from private parties/builders. We are however very grateful
to the CM of Uttarkhand Maj Gen (Retd) B C Khanduri for having
offered us land at Dehradun, Haldwani and Kotdwar. Efforts
are now on to get the land allottted to AWHO.
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| 42.
Land is becoming costly by the day. What looks expensive today
is beyond reach tomorrow. Prices of cement and steel have gone
very high. All construction materials have become very expensive.
Gone are the days when AWHO could give you a three bedroom house
for 13 to 14 lacs of rupees. Such houses would now be costing
anywhere around 30 lacs. In the open market of course they are
still costlier. We hope the Sixth Pay Commission will help.
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43.
We keep on receiving large number of suggestions of making
rooms and kitchens bigger and to make larger balconies and
also to fix fly proof shutters and grills in the houses, and
also provide servant quarters. We appreciate all the suggestions,
but then every additional item means extra cost. It is very
difficult for an average officer/OR to arrange for such large
sums of money unless he has financial backing from his home.
We therefore try and give you what is best and essential at
the minimum cost. The rest you can add on when you have the
money or at any later stage.
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| 44.
There are many suggestions conveyed to us regarding the Rules
and Regulations laid down in the Master Brochure. For the information
of all, the Rules and Regulations are made by the Board of Management
which consists of the AG, QMG, E-in-C, DG DC&W, MD AWHO
and MG-IC-Adms of all the Commands. Every issue is discussed
and debated and views of the environment are taken before a
Rule is made. No changes are made on ad-hoc basis. AWHO by itself
has no power to change/amend Rules. Therefore kindly keep this
in mind when any suggestions on such issues are made to AWHO.
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45. Enough
has been written and many pages have been filled up in the
write up. Therefore it is time to say 'adieu' till the next
News Letter. All of us here in AWHO wish everyone 'All the
best' and GOD BLESS.
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Maj
Gen Mohan Singh
Managing
Director |
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