40L living in unauthorised colonies to get ownership rights

It was a long struggle of the Aam Aadmi Party and the people of Delhi for the regularisation of unauthorised colonies: CM

NEW DELHI: You may call it a pre- Diwali bonanza for lakhs of people residing in unauthorised colonies of the national capital or a pre-poll strategy of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government at the Centre to bring maximum votes in the upcoming Delhi assembly election.

The proposal of regularisation of 1,797 unauthorised colonies that figured in the manifestos of every political party was on Wednesday approved by the Union Cabinet, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The decision that has been taken three months ahead of the assembly elections would benefit about 40 lakh people residing in these unauthorised colonies as they would get the ownership rights over their properties.

“Ownership rights have been given to nearly 40 lakh people living in unauthorised colonies in Delhi. The cabinet has taken this decision today,” Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said while announcing the decisions taken by the cabinet.

“Today the population of Delhi is over two crore. There has been a long-standing demand to do something about unauthorised colonies. The last attempt to do something was in 2008. There are unsafe structures that have been constructed, and because they are unauthorised, the Central

government cannot provide services there. This is the most farsighted and progressive step that has been taken by the Central government,” said Hardeep Singh

The road map for it was based on a proposal sent by the Delhi government in July and that the Centre should start the process immediately

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

Puri, the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has hailed the decision of the Centre. Kejriwal said, “The road map for it was based on a proposal sent by the Delhi government in July and that the Centre should start the process immediately.”

The Centre has taken an important decision on the long-pending demand of Delhiites, he said, adding, “The Delhi government is ready to be a part of the regularisation of unauthorised colonies. We invested have Rs 6,000 crore towards putting in place several amenities in these colonies over the last four years without waiting for any such move from the Centre.”

“We had given three to four suggestions to the Centre for the regularisation of such colonies such as fixing January 1, 2019, as the cut-off date,” Kejriwal said.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal congratulated people of Delhi and thanked the Central government for clearing the Delhi government’s proposal to regularise 1,797 unauthorised colonies. “As soon as our government came to power in February, 2015, we immediately started to work in this direction. A detailed proposal for regularisation of the unauthorised colonies in Delhi was made and submitted to the union government on November 12, 2015. As you know the union government made a draft cabinet note and gave it to us in July, 2019. They had given us 2-3 weeks of time to reply. But within 4-5 days, without any delay we replied on July 24. We gave 12 suggestions. And we accepted the proposal in the union cabinet note,” CM said.

Kejriwal said, “People will get the actual benefit of this only once they receive the registry. Until then, people may think that it is an effort to woo them before the elections. Delhi government is ready to undertake the registration process as early as possible once the notification is done by the Centre. Revenue Department will set up camps in the colonies and the process will be completed as early as possible. The stamp duty on the registry will be nominal. We are hoping that the procedure until notification is completed by the Centre at the earliest. We are confident of completing registries of 40 lakh people within a month.”

It was a long struggle of the Aam Aadmi Party and the people of Delhi for the regularisation of unauthorised colonies, he said.

Speaking at a press conference, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said, “For four years BJP sat on the proposal and did not make any decisions on it. We kept writing to them asking them to revert. Meanwhile, we did not ignore people’s demand to live in better colonies. We spent Rs 6,000 crore in the last five years to develop water supply, sewer, and drainage to make the colonies livable.” “The BJP could pass ordinances to celebrate Jallikattu festival so why can’t they pass an ordinance for this too? The Aap-led government is ready to authorise colonies any day,” he added.

Speaking at the same conference AAP’S national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said, “In order to authorise the colonies the government will require mapping of these colonies and we have that ready through GSDL, an agency. We want the registry to start immediately.”