The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sheila denies delay in furnishing colonies list

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 09, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sheila denies delay in furnishing colonies list

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 8. The Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today denied that there was any delay on the part of the Delhi Government in furnishing the lists of unauthorised colonies in the Capital. Instead, she urged the Union Urban Development Ministry to expedite the work of the committee constituted under the convenership of the DDA Commissioner (Planning) to work out modalities for regularisation of these colonies.

In a letter to the Union Urban Development Minister, Bandaru Dattatraya, the Chief Minister said the Ministry should come out with a clarification on the reported move by the Central Government to withdraw its application in the Delhi High Court concerning the revised guidelines on the issue of regularisation of unauthorised colonies. She said there was no delay on the part of the Delhi Government in furnishing the list of such colonies. It is absolutely necessary that the Committee constituted by the Union Government moves forward with the task entrusted to it. She said the Delhi Government had already sent the lists covering the colonies up to the period 1993 on two occasions but without any substantial response from the Union Government.

Ms. Dikshit said there was a communication gap and the Union Minister was perhaps not updated on the facts. She further stated to Mr. Dattatraya that the Committee constituted by the Ministry had till date not issued the public notice required for inviting fresh applications to ensure that every eligible colony that has come up till March 2002 is considered for regularisation. The Delhi Government would only send the list when this Committee is able to complete the process. A public notice was to have been issued and the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) were to apply for regularisation along with their layout plans and site maps giving all the details required. However, now that model code of conduct has been in force in Delhi since the first week of February, the matter will take some time to be processed. Ms. Dikshit said everything depends on the public notice that is to be issued by the Central Government.

Earlier, realising the importance of the issue, the Chief Minister, while speaking at the election rally of the Congress in the Capital charged the BJP and its Central Government of betraying lakhs of residents of unauthorised colonies by taking contradictory stand in the court. She said the people living in these colonies would not forgive the BJP for this.

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