Have spent ₹2,500cr on unauthorised colonies, says govt

NEWDELHI: The Delhi government on Friday said that ₹2,500 crore has been spent on the development of unauthorised colonies across the city since 2015.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government released the figures in a statement on Friday to support its claim that state urban development minister Satyendar Jain was being “targeted” by the central government for his efforts to regularise unauthorised colonies.

On Thursday, Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) issued a nod to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute Jain in a case related to alleged possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The AAP government said that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Jain had been personally taking stock of the development work being conducted in the capital’s unauthorised colonies.

“Till date, the Delhi government, through different agencies, has spent around ₹2,500 crore for the construction of roads and drains in the unauthorised colonies. This amount is covering around 650 colonies in Delhi,” according to the statement.

At present there are around 1,700 unauthorised colonies with about 50 lakh residents in Delhi. The Master Plan shifts the onus of regularisation of these colonies on the Delhi government.

As many as 895 colonies were regularised in 2012 by the then Congress government.in 2015, the AAP government had said in its election campaign said that it would start registration of the remaining unauthorised colonies. “The centre had been stopping our efforts related to regularise the unauthorised colonies for a long time through various means,” a government official, who did not wish to be identified, said.