MHADA application forms cross 20K mark

The number of applications for MHADA houses finally crossed the 20,000 mark till Monday evening, the sixth day for online submissions of forms for allotment in the lottery conducted by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).

In the six days of the submission of applications forms for lottery, the total count has gone up to 20,531 and has been increasing steadily after a shocking count of only 898 on the first day. " I agree there were problems on the first day but now the number of applicants is rising steadily and we are confident that it would match the numbers of the previous years" said Amarjit Singh Manhas, Chairman, MHADA's Mumbai board, The total number of forms submitted to the banks is only 2300, just about 11 per cent of the total forms filled.

"Generally the number of receipts of forms at the centers is low every year compared to the number of forms purchased and this year since the filling up of forms is online, many people have just filled it as a safety measure and would be submitting them at the later stage" said a MHADA official.

The number of forms at the banks is expected to rise on in the coming days as Saturday saw around 1000 forms submitted and Monday saw 800. While the people are also facing problems obtaining a printout of the entire 40- page information booklet as MHADA has not sold any hard copy of the same. The booklet contains all the information regarding the codes of the areas and the special reservations in categories.

"The new process is both complex as well as expensive as we need to pay more than what we used to pay earlier to fill up the forms and submit them," said Pramod Mane an applicant.

Meanwhile MHADA has also placed the link of the forms on their main website that was missing on the first day. It has started the submission of online forms from Wednesday for the 4034 houses it has offered this year for lottery.