Jaipur: More than 1,000 patta applications submitted during Rajasthan’s Urban Service Camp between June 12 and July 15 have been kept on hold after the State Election Commission enforced the model code of conduct for civic polls.Officials in the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) said the urban development and housing (UDH) department has stopped free or concessional allotments during the code period, including penalty waivers linked to the camps. The absence of a clear cut-off date in the order suspending exemptions has also stalled leases for applicants who deposited demand amounts before the code came into force but had not received their pattas.“Not only JDA, but leases were also stopped on the applications received during the campaign in other development authorities, corporations, municipalities, and councils. Pattas, without any waiver, are being issued without the photo of Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma,” an UDH official said.A senior JDA official said the authority alone has more than 1,000 such pending cases. In some categories, including delayed applications for name changes, the govt levies a resumption charge as a penalty before issuing a fresh lease. All lease paper, applied at the service camps, initially had photos of the chief minister printed. “The urban camps had offered a waiver of this charge, but files involving that concession have now been stopped. For applications, where this waiver is applicable, has been halted,” explained another official.JDA officials said there is no bar on leases that do not involve exemptions or concessions. Applications accompanied by full penalty payments are being processed by JDA and other civic bodies.“We have cleared around ten such applications filed after the camp, with full penalty payments till Friday,” another JDA official claimed. The paused files will move after the code ends.
