Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A. B. Bardhan has demanded that the self-draw of lots by some cooperative societies in Dwarka sub-city of Delhi should be regularised and accepted and no penal action be taken against the members concerned.

Bardhan wrote to the prime minister, the UPA chairperson and Delhi’s lieutenant-governor on February 23 and sought their intervention in getting the flats allotted to citizens who have invested their life savings or taken loans from banks and booked houses in cooperative societies in Dwarka.

“They are still forced to live in rented accommodations and denied possession of their flats by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS), Delhi, on one pretext or the other,” he told The Hindu. “When the cup of woes was full and patience of the concerned suffering members ran out, quite legitimately they drew lots among themselves and took possession of their flats,” he added.

This self-drawing of lots has caused no dispute in the five societies which carried out this exercise but the RCS has termed this action illegal and has served notices threatening penal action.

Bardhan has requested that the DDA and the RCS should accept such draw of lots in future and do not take action against the draws already complete.