The Hindu : `Slums decision political stunt'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 06, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Slums decision political stunt'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 5. The Congress today described the Union Cabinet's decision to regularise all the unauthorised colonies that came up in the Capital till March 2003 as a "political stunt'', while the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party termed it a "historic'' one.

Addressing a press conference here, the senior Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar, alleged that such a decision was taken in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections to get some votes from the lakhs of people residing in these unauthorised colonies.

Asserting that the Congress Government in Delhi had been fighting for regularisation of unauthorised colonies for the past five years, he asked, "What was the BJP-led Union Government doing all these years?''

Referring to a similar decision of the Union Cabinet a few years ago when Jagmohan was the Union Urban Development Minister, Mr. Kumar said: "We had opposed it due to the harsh and impractical conditions imposed for regularisation.'' He said, the people and his party would not accept any policy other than the one framed by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, in 1976-77, when no charge was imposed on the residents for providing power, water and sanitation. The Delhi Government has already forwarded a resolution in this regard to the Union Urban Development Ministry, he said.

"But this time, the Union Government is planning to charge 20 times higher than the cost of construction of the house from each house owner, which could not be justified at any cost,'' he alleged. "We will launch a people's movement against this,'' he said.

Meanwhile, welcoming the decision of the Union Government, the Delhi BJP president, Harsh Vardhan, claimed that it would benefit 30 per cent of the people of the Capital who were residing in unauthorised colonies. "With this a long standing demand of the people of the Capital has been accepted,'' he said.

Once the decision to regularise the colonies have been taken, the BJP would now ensure proper financial allocation for development of the unauthorised colonies at the earliest, he said. "In all, 1,321 unauthorised colonies would now be regularised,'' he added.

Dr. Vardhan alleged that the funds being provided by the Union Government for the development of the Capital to the Delhi Government were either not utilised or diverted for other purposes. "For instance, the Union Government has provided Rs. 125 crores to the Delhi Government for the development of slums and rehabilitation. But the Sheila Dikshit Government misused the funds and spent Rs. 25 crores on salaries and rest has not been used so far and diverted to other capacity,'' he said.

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