REGULARISATION, AMENITIES TOP ISSUES FLAGGED BY RESIDENTS OF UNAUTHORISED COLONIES IN CITY

NEW DELHI: “We are not considered a priority...All we get is promises,” said Tulsi Kumar, 42, a resident of the Meera Bagh Jhuggi Jhopri (slum) cluster in west Delhi’s Pashchim Vihar, echoing concerns raised by residents of unauthorised colonies in Delhi on Sunday during polling for the MCD elections.

Kumar said the garbage dumps in their area keep growing and alleged he had seen garbage vans dumping waste from nearby localities at the JJ cluster.

Sanitation, open drains and rampant mosquito breeding were some of the major concerns flagged by voters from unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters who voted on Sunday.

Balbir Aswal, who also lives in the Meera Bagh JJ cluster, said waste has not been lifted in their area for over a decade. “It keeps accumulating and people either lift it themselves or it is burnt. People are tired of living this way and want a change,” he said.

To be sure, government funds cannot be spent on the development of unauthorised colonies, but local agencies do provide some basic amenities such as sanitation in these pockets.

Avtar Singh, 65, a resident of Indra Enclave near Chhattarpur, said he was voting in the hope for getting his neighbourhood cleaned. Kamlesh, 65 a differently abled voter from this unauthorized cluster said that she does not get pension on time. “My pension is the biggest issue for me. I also want better roads to help me commute without seeking help from others,” said Kamlesh who uses a tricycle to move around.

Prem Gaur, who runs a car accessories store in Dayalpur in north-east Delhi, said the central government had announced that it has regularised unauthoried colonies in Delhi, but the ground reality is different. “Banks still do not provide loans on properties in unauthorised colonies and these properties cannot be registered,” said Gaur, whose family has been living in Dayalpur area for three decades now.

The Centre regularised 1,731 unauthorised colonies in Delhi under the PM-UDAY scheme, giving ownership rights to the residents of these areas. While the central government began the process to grant rights, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the nodal agency for the implementation of this scheme, had to stop the process in at least 80 unauthorised colonies that fall in the ‘O-zone’, where construction activity is banned, according to the Master Plan of Delhi-2021.

Amarnath Mishra, a social worker, said unauthorised colonies have been neglected by both the Delhi government and the BJPruled MCD. “Even on polling day, they did not clean the garbage,” he said pointing to a dump near a polling booth in Khajuri Khas.