Next on Nigam’s list is to ensure housing development for the economically weaker sectors of society. “We need to ensure that the economically weaker people are provided housing in areas close to where they earn their livelihood,” he said. The DDA’s new policy on housing would be a “realistic policy that can no longer ignore the ground realities,” Nigam pointed out.

The new DDA vice-chairman claims that he is well versed on the ground reality, thanks to his two year tenure as Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. “The MCD and the DDA are two sides of the same coin. One formulates the policy and the other implements it. Having worked closely at the implementation level, I am sure the experience will be useful in policy formulation,” said Nigam. He added that policy formulation at the DDA would henceforth be “compatible with the ground realities. There will be no room for distortion between planning and implementation.”

Nigam stressed, “The common man’s interaction with the DDA should be transparent, simple and user friendly and I hope to introduce such policies.”