NEW DELHI: Paving the way for a solution to decades-old problem of housing, the Delhi government said it has agreed to all the conditions put up by the Centre for granting ownership rights to residents of unauthorised colonies.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that his government gave 12 suggestions to the Centre, including a new cut-off date for ownership rights. As per the Centre’s plan, the regularisation process will take place in two phases for which the Delhi Development Authority has to chalk out a road map in a month. As many as 1,797 unauthorised colonies will be covered in the first phase.
Kejriwal suggested that the registration could start immediately based on the mapping done by the Geospatial Delhi Limited (GSDL) along with the RWA plan. One area of friction could be the cut-off date for properties to be covered for ownership rights - the Centre has set the deadline at January 1, 2015, while Kejriwal wants it to be extended till March 31, 2019.
The second phase will cover those colonies which are left out in the initial stage. For ownership of encroached government land, the person acquiring such property will have to pay some amount of the land and a penalty. This will not be applicable if it is private land.
Kejriwal said regularisation of unauthorised colonies is a “top priority” of his government. “We have agreed to all the conditions set by the Centre, and we have sent our suggestions as well. We are fine with the Centre either agreeing to them or not, but there should not be anymore delay on this matter.”
Also, the AAP government has decided to drop all cases under Section 81 of the Delhi Land Reforms Act, which primarily deals with penalties in cases regarding non-agricultural activities taking place at agriculture land. To stop the spread of illegal colonies, the Kejriwal government proposed the suspension of SDM, SHO and municipal official to bring in accountability.
The Centre plans to leave out three affluent colonies — Sainik Farm, Mahendru Enclave and Anant Ram Dairy — from the regularisation plan, but Kejriwal wants them to be included in the plan as well. While the Centre is in favour of leaving out colonies where there are patches of forest and ASI structures, the Delhi government wants such colonies minus such patches be regularised as well.
Unauthorised colonies are a major votebank for all political parties in Delhi, with all of them promising their regularisation at some point of time. The BJP accuses Kejriwal of being a “stumbling block” in regularising the unauthorised colonies in the city