NEW DELHI: While political parties are involved in sloganeering over the demolition drive by the railways, the Delhi government is yet to come out with any concrete relocation policy for slum dwellers. The AAP government, which has been in power for about eight months, has not finalised its proposed Delhi Slum Rehabilitation and Jhuggi Jhopri Relocation policy.
The draft policy states that the land owning agency will have to first submit a proposal to the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). If the DUSIB is satisfied and permits demolition, then the government will make efforts to relocate the slums, after clearing the land and handing it over to the land owning agency within six months.
The Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojna for urban poor has already been scrapped by the AAP government without bringing in any new policy for slum dwellers. Estimates show that 17,000 flats for economical weaker sections of urban poor have fallen vacant in the last five years and successive governments had failed to allocate these units to the poor. Meanwhile, the decision to demolish the slum was taken at a high level meeting chaired by railway officials and attended by Delhi government officials.