Digitisation of land records, making the Delhi Development Authority transparent and working for an ISO certificate for the housing agency will be his priorities, new DDA vice-chairman G S Patnaik said today.

Patnaik, a 1980-batch IAS officer of UT cadre, who took over the post this afternoon, told reporters that he will try to make the DDA more public friendly and constitute a task force to examine how its website can be made interactive.

"Almost 45 per cent of the city's prime land is with DDA.

My priority will be to initiate a scheme for bringing records of land available with Delhi government, DDA and Land and Development Office (L&DO) on a unified platform," he said.

Patnaik, who was till now Principal Secretary in the Home Department of Delhi government, said geostationary points have been identified during a survey by the Surveyor General of India and the records will be stored in a digitised form.

When it was pointed out that the DDA many a time finds itself in news for wrong reasons, he admitted that there were some "shortcomings" and he will work to strengthen the organisation. He said the workings of the agency will be made transparent and efforts made for "ISO compliance".

He said housing for economically weaker sections will be given top priority and details of freehold properties placed on the revenue records. The DDA is also working on a scheme for online verification of payments made to it.

To a query, Patnaik acknowledged that the housing agency should take care of matters like maintenance issues and power connection before giving possession of flats to the public.

Asked about problems being faced by DDA over Commonwealth Games Village, including allegations about the quality of flats and the dispute with private firm Emaar-MGF, Patnaik said "part of these is sub-judice and regarding other matters, we will try to tackle the challenges."

On complaints of theft of sound-proofing panels from some flyovers, Patnaik said, "It is a security issue and the question should be posed before the appropriate forum."