NEW DELHI: With less than one year left for the Delhi assembly elections, both Centre and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is wooing residents of 1,797 odd unauthorised colonies in the national capital with ownership rights of their land. The 1,797 unauthorised colonies, accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the population in Delhi and thus makes an attractive vote bank for the political parties.
When the AAP government came to power, the Delhi cabinet approved the proposal of authorising these colonies and sent it to the Centre in November 2015. While Centre kept sitting on the proposal it has recently approved it and both BJP and AAP are quick to take credit for the same.
The Delhi chief minister was quick to take the credit at a conference and was later on attacked by Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, who accused that AAP is trying to take credit for it. “When the Modi government had come to power, it had clearly spelt out that it works for the poor and the deprived. Our sharp focus is on a prioritisation process. We will first address the regularisation of 1,797 unauthorised colonies,” Puri said.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on July 28 hosted some residents of unauthorised colonies at his residence and thanked them for entrusting his party with their votes in the last Assembly elections.“The BJP people said that the process of regularisation (of unauthorised colonies) that has taken place is because of them. I do not want to take the credit, they want it, they can take it. I will not ask what you did for the last 25 years. But it is okay, you (BJP) take the credit; just get it done,” Kejriwal said with a smile.
However, experts feel that regularising these colonies would lead to development challenges, as many of these colonies lack running water supply and almost all lack sewage system. “The task is far more challenging. There is no pattern in the way colonies have come up. Laying water pipe and sewer lines is not possible in many colonies. This would take 15 years for the Delhi Jal Board to complete the process of developing sewage system and proper water supply to 1,797 colonies earmarked to be regularised,” said an official from the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).