However, according to sources, the practice continues unabated. Money can buy you a jhuggi, a ration card (bogus or genuine) and even a house (the pradhans will even help in selling the house, it is alleged).

A case in point is the rehabilitation colony in Sector 52, where Karsan Colony residents were recently shifted. A Karsan Colony resident, Jarnail Singh, says that despite being a resident of the colony for 15 years, he was not allotted a house because he didn't agree to pay money to the colony pradhan, Ram Lal.

"Many others who weren't eligible for the allotments got them for money," he alleges. "The fantastic assets he has acquired over the past four or five years will vouch for it. Why doesn't anyone inquire into it?" Showing the injuries on his head and knee, he alleges how he was twice beaten up when he tried to raise the issue with the authorities. "The police didn't register my complaint," he says. "Nor did the officials pay any heed. All officials whom I met simply took my application and nothing happened."

When the Newsline team went around the colony, the views it gathered were divergent. While some residents admitted that money had exchanged hands, a few others claimed they were asked to pay money -- by Ram Lal and another pradhan, Mohinder Singh -- which they refused. Many others denied any illegal deals.

Ram Lal dismisses these allegations as baseless. "Who are we to allot the houses? In fact, neither of us has got one." He claims that all this propaganda against him is politically-motivated. As about the complaint by Jarnail Singh, he says the complainant is only dragging him into the case for interfering in his feud with Mohinder Singh. Significantly, many allottees point fingers at certain junior and middle-rung officials for being a party to the fraudulent allotments. According to one of the allottees, the officials demand Rs 10,000 for clearing "minor obstacles" and Rs 25,000 for allotting houses on the basis of fictitious allotments. No bad deal, they assert -- the houses are selling in the region of Rs 1 lakh.

"There's no doubt that some pradhans do end up making big money in the process of allotments," says city mayor Gian Chand Gupta, who too has been receiving complaints in this regard. He disagrees that the Administration can be helpless about the matter. "In fact, all these people must be brought to book and strict action should follow."

An official, who doesn't want to be identified, says that these pradhans are nothing but agents of various political parties. "They come to us and say, `Sahib garib banda hai, kaam kar do.' But the fact is that they have charged money from most of these garibs." Deputy Commissioner Khandelwal admits that there have been complaints of such malpractice by pradhans but they are not backed by solid evidence, although some pradhans have been arrested too. "Any allottee who has been harassed by these pradhans can approach us and the Administration will promptly look into the matter," he says.