Slum dwellers set to get flats as rehab policy finally takes off

NEWDELHI: After over a year’s wait, work on providing slum dwellers with better houses is finally going to take off in Delhi, with the first beneficiaries set to get houses in northwest Delhi’s Sultanpuri area.

The Aam Aadmi Party government has notified the ‘Delhi Slum and JJ Relocation and Rehabilitation Policy, 2015’ which mandates in-situ rehabilitation of slum dwellers within a radius of five kilometres.

A key poll promise of the AAP before it came to power, the scheme got the nod of Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal months after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP legislators criticised him of “sitting over” the file ever since the Cabinet approved it in July last year.

Following this, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) is preparing to conduct a survey for identifying households that are in need of rehabilitation and to find out if they are eligible. As per the previous survey conducted in 2014-15, Delhi has 675 slum and JJ clusters.

“Within 10 days, we are going to float a tender for conducting a demand-supply survey where targeted households will be mapped and their alternate housing area identified,” said DUSIB CEO, Shurbir Singh. DUSIB has been made the nodal agency for the scheme and the survey of the city is likely to be over by June.

In the first phase, the government is going to shift residents of slums and JJ clusters living in-and-around northwest Delhi’s Sultanpuri area. “There are 1,060 ready-to-move dwelling units there. In a month’s time we plan to move eligible people into these houses,” Singh said.

However, the houses under the new scheme will not be free. General category beneficiaries will have to pay ₹1.12 lakh for the 25-sq metre flat, while scheduled caste allottees will pay ₹1,000.

Meanwhile, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked all land-owning agencies in the city not to demolish the jhuggis until the end of winter.“please do not demolish jhuggis till winters are over... It’s very cold and take a humanitarian approach,” he said according to a statement. NEWDELHI: With winters getting severe, the Delhi government on Friday announced free health checkups for all homeless persons living in its night shelters. They will also be given morning tea and biscuits and warm water for bathing.

Under its winter initiative, the government has asked the health department to tie up with DUSIB to ensure that those in need of medical assistance get it on priority. Shurbir Singh, DUSIB CEO, said that health department has constituted 10 teams of doctors and paramedical staff to inspect the shelters twice a week. The inspection is to begin from Monday.