NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday launched an attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the national capital on regularisation of unauthorsied colonies. Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, an MP from Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency, accused the government of “betraying” the poor and added that it had done nothing for regularisation of unauthorised colonies despite being in power for five years.
Speaking in a press conference, flanked by the other six MPs from Delhi, including Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, Vardhan said that the previous Congress government in Delhi had also “cheated” the residents of unauthorised colonies in the name of regularisation.“There were three-four things that the Delhi government was required to do for regularisation as per regularisation of 2008. The AAP government did not fulfil its responsibilities — delineation of colonies, the constitution of a committee to decide titles, fixing charges and fees — despite being in power for five years,” he said.
The Modi government had started work for regularisation of unauthorised colonies in 2014 itself, he said.
Thursday’s event indicated that regularisation of unauthorised colonies will be a major poll issue in the Assembly elections scheduled next year.
During an interaction with Union minister and Delhi assembly elections incharge Prakash Javadekar, several district-level workers and other state leaders had suggested pushing for immediate regularisation of the colonies in question to counter the freebies being offered by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. There are 1,797 unauthorised colonies housing lakhs of people that have been awaiting regularisation for many years.
Vardhan said that the AAP government, in a letter to the Centre, had expressed its inability to regularise the colonies before 2021.Kejriwal has said residents of unauthorised colonies in Delhi will soon have ownership rights over their properties and asserted that the Centre had agreed to its proposal in this regard. “The Centre has sent a very positive response,” he said.