New Delhi: The Delhi Development Authority has decided to launch a special online housing scheme for people belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories for nearly 500 flats from its old inventory, officials said Friday.

The decision was taken in an authority meeting of the urban body chaired by Lt Governor Anil Baijal at the Raj Niwas here, officials said.

"The authority decided to launch a special online housing scheme 2019 for SC/ST for approximately 500 flats from the old inventory," the DDA said in a statement.

Application fee for the scheme will be received online only, it said.

The ratio will be 2:1 for SC and ST category applicants and tentative cost will be as per standard costing, the DDA said.

Flats will be in various categories -- SFS (Self-Financing Scheme)/HIG, MIG, LIG and Janta/EWS category.

Payment of cost of flats will be on 'cash down' basis except under persons with disability category and draw of lots will be done through a draw of lots, the statement said.

All other terms and conditions of the scheme will be as per the brochure of Housing Scheme 2019 including the application fee.

The DDA had Tuesday received about 50,000 applications for its new online housing scheme 2019, with authorities attributing the poor response to bulk of the flats being located in Narela area in outer Delhi, among other factors.

The deadline to apply for the DDA's online scheme 2019, which was launched in March, had ended on June 10.

In the existing provision of the scheme for allotment of houses to the SC/STs, if requisite number of applications is not received from the reserved categories, all remaining flats are offered to the persons belonging to the general category, the DDA said in the statement.

The DDA Authority in its meeting also decided to offer one-bedroom flats to Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and recipients of gallantry awards, war widows and persons who have got injured or disabled during action or war, the statement said.

"As a welfare gesture, the authority decided to offer one-bedroom flats at Sectors G-2 and G-8 Narela and Sectors-34 and 35 Rohini to the above category of persons at a price of Rs 7 lakhs per dwelling unit although the cost of flat is around 15 lakh," it said.

"This will be one-time concession to the persons of this category and it will not be treated as a precedent in future," the DDA said.

Since almost 50 per cent of the cost is being charged, a clause will be incorporated in the demand letter that the allottees would not be entitled to sell or transfer or otherwise part with the possession of the flat in any manner for a period of 10 years from the date of possession, and during this period the property will be treated as leasehold, it said.