Will court order resolve mess?
ILLEGAL COLONIES Despite the Supreme Court’s order staying construction in illegal colonies, property deals go on. Authorities warn buyers against investing in such areas
NEW DELHI: A day after the Supreme Court ordered an immediate stay on construction in Delhi’s 1,797 unauthorised colonies, residents, builders and property dealers in these neighbourhoods seemed unfazed about the future of the ongoing projects.
Hindustan Times on Wednesday visited five illegal colonies in Delhi to see the impact of the court’s order on the ground. Illegal constructions and sale negotiations continued in cramped spaces in Batla House, Noor Nagar Extension, Jasola, Rani Garden and Ambedkar Park.
Asked about the fear among the buyers after the court’s order, builders and house owners sounded confident of seeing the problem through.
The owner of a two-storey building in Okhla was selling an under construction 35 square yard house on the third floor for ₹9 lakh. He claimed to return the money even if the “flat gets demolished 10 years later”.
Single-bedroom flats to duplexes undergoing construction on plots, ranging between 25 and 120 square yards were on offer in many of these neighbourhoods for as little as ₹7 lakh, with scope for negotiation. “I am selling a duplex built over 55 square yards for ₹50 lakh. The buyer can add two floors later on,” said a property dealer in Rani Garden.
A six-storey apartment being constructed on a 170 square yard plot in Batla House had three flats on each floor. There was space for an elevator, but no parking space. The owner said the top floor buyer had the privilege of adding a room and a toilet on the terrace.
It would take at least six months to complete the project, but the owner said five flats had already been booked. “Other builders have inner walls just four inches thick. My building is strong,” said the owner of the building which stood barely 100 metres from t he Yamuna waters. The riverbed offered a large space for stocking huge heaps of sand, stone chips and other building materials.
Manoj Misra, the convener of environmental group, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, said the illegal constructions on the riverbed were an “invitation to disaster”.
“If there is an earthquake or a flood, many of these buildings will collapse and people will die. The authorities did not wake up even after the building collapse in east Delhi’s Lalita Park in 2010 (that killed 67 people). Hopefully, the court order will force the authorities to stop the illegal and dangerous constructions,” said Misra.
East Delhi mayor Neema Bhagat, who is a councillor from Rani Garden, said, “Most constructions here are on the verge of completion. However, we have asked the commissioner to ensure that no new construction happens in the unauthorised colonies.”
The low costs of these properties may be luring for buyers, but none of the builders or property dealers offered sale deed for the houses. The property dealer from Rani Garden said houses were sold only on through the general power of attorney (GPA). He said he would help the buyers get a sale deed, when the colony would be regularised.
Amjad Tak, sub-divisional magistrate, south district, warned against such property transactions. He said the GPA is just an agreement between two consenting parties and the government has nothing to do with it. He said the GPA is not signed by a sub-registrar and is only based on the notarized document. “Such documents can be challenged by the government any time,” Tak said.
Many offered “much more space” than what is reflected in the property documents. A house in south Delhi’s Jasola on a plot measuring 80 square yards was offered with a covered area of 93 square yards. In Noor Nagar Extension, the ground floor of a building measured 170 square yards, but the upper floors had a covered area of 205 square yards.
Many of these houses have no parking. “The buyer can park one scooter. If there is a car, the buyer can purchase one of the three shops on the ground floor and use it for parking,” said a property dealer in Ambedkar Park.
The shop costs ₹10 lakh. In Batla House, some slum dwellers had laid plastic sheets on a large area of floodplain land to cover concrete constructions.
Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan said residents were left with no option but to go ahead with unauthorised constructions due to delay in approvals by the civic bodies and the police. “There needs to be a separate body for approving building plans in unauthorised colonies,” he said. earmarked by the Delhi government in the 2018-19 budget for infrastructure development in the unauthorised colonies
The funds are provided mainly to the executing agencies DSIIDC, I&FC & DJB
total unauthorised colonies in Delhi
slums earmarked for development of illegal colonies in in the revised estimates for 2017-18
“The GPA is just an agreement between two consenting parties and the government has nothing to do with it. Such documents can be challenged by the government any time.”
sub-divisional magistrate, south district