The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sheila hauls up DDA for neglecting resettlement colony

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 20, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sheila hauls up DDA for neglecting resettlement colony

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JUNE 19. The Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today hauled up the Delhi Development Authority for not providing electricity to the 15,000 families residing in the Madanpur Khadar resettlement colony even after four years of the colony having been rehabilitated and ordered the authority to release Rs 5.5 crores for the purpose to BSES saying she wants the electrification work completed before Diwali.

The Chief Minister who visited the colony along with the Outer Delhi MP, Sajjan Kumar, area MLA, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, and the Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, besides a number of senior officials from various departments, interacted with the residents and discussed various issues at hand with the concerned officials.

Mr Bidhuri said the Chief Minister was particular irked by the fact that even four years after the colony had been rehabilitated, DDA had not electrified it. ``Despite having charged between Rs 7,000 and Rs 21,000 per family and having reclaimed land worth crores of rupees in eight Assembly segments of Delhi by removing these people, DDA did not perform its duty of providing a basic thing like electricity to them,'' he charged.

Taking note of the lapse, Ms Dikshit directed the DDA to immediately release Rs 5.5 crores to BSES for electrification of the colony as this was the amount which the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission had ordered it to pay for the purpose. She also told it to release payment for installation of streetlights by BSES. And lest the directions are ignored, she declared that she would return to the colony 10 days before Diwali and by then she wanted the place lit up.

Since the colony also has no crematorium and graveyard, the Chief Minister instructed the DDA to look into the problem, mark out pieces of land for the same and hand them to the MCD Commissioner for development. She also asked the DDA to develop parks and three of the seven planned community centres within this year.

As for the markets, she said they too should be developed quickly and only the local residents should be allowed to participate in auctions. Also, she called for creating proper kiosks for providing vending places to small traders. The Chief Minister also ordered setting up ration shops and kerosene depots in the colony.

The Chief Minister also informed the residents that the construction of a senior secondary school was underway in the locality and instructed the Education Department officials to complete the process by the beginning of July so that students could be registered from the next session.

Regarding the approach road to the area that falls under the jurisdiction of the UP Irrigation Department, the Chief Minister said she will take up the issue with the UP Government to seek permission for constructing the road.

The Chief Minister also reiterated that her Government was committed to the policy of ensuring that whenever relocation of slums and jhuggi clusters took place, the people shifted out were not only provided with alternative plots, but also basic civic amenities such as sanitation, health, education, power, transport and water. As such she hoped that in the future provision for all these amenities as also graveyards and crematoriums would be made by the civic agencies in all rehabilitation projects.

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