The Hindu : New Delhi News : A well-lit Diwali for re-settlement colony

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 20, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

A well-lit Diwali for re-settlement colony

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 19. For the thousands of families living in the Madanpur Khadar re-settlement colony in the Badarpur Assembly constituency of South Delhi, this is going to be a "different Diwali''. For the first time in the past more than four years of their living here, nearly 20,000 families are going to celebrate the festival of lights "literally'' with lights both inside and outside their hutments.

Thanks to the personal interest and initiative of the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, the turn around in their fortunes has come about due to the collective efforts of the Nationalist Congress Party MLA, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, and the civic agencies involved in the work. Interestingly, the Chief Minister has visited various re-settlement colonies all over the Capital and had ticked off the civic agencies for not providing basic amenities there. She is understood to be monitoring the situation closely and is expected to take another round of these colonies soon for an on the spot assessment of the implementation of the directives issued by her during her visit in the summer months.

The four-year-long battle for getting electrification of their entire colony got a push after Mr. Bidhuri took up the matter with Ms. Dikshit, who immediately agreed to tour the area to have first hand information about the problems being faced by the people living there.

It was sometime in May this year that Ms. Dikshit went around the re-settlement colony along with Mr. Bidhuri and senior officials of various civic agencies including the Delhi Development Authority. She was appalled to note that the DDA had relocated these people from areas like Nehru Place, Yamuna Pushta, Sarojni Nagar, Green Park and other posh areas nearly four year ago but had not made any arrangement for providing them basic civic amenities. The residents of this colony had at that time pointed out that despite their repeated attempts no electrification work had been carried out and they had been leading a difficult life for four long years without electricity.

Taking a serious note of the lapses by the DDA under the previous NDA regime, the Chief Minister issued immediate directions to all the agencies concerned including DDA and BSES to start electrification work. In order to ensure proper compliance, the Chief Minister announced November first week as the deadline for completion of the project and declared that she would like the people of this re-settlement colony to celebrate the festival of lights in real terms.

The DDA and BSES moved into action and deposited nearly Rs. 11 crores that were required to be paid for taking up developmental works in the colony. The DDA had held back the release of Rs.5.5 crores for almost three years and it was only after the intervention by the Chief Minister that the money was released to BSES for electrification work. "The work has been going on at a fast pace. The BSES has been doing a good job and a majority of the poles and lines have been laid in the area. The people are paying up development charges and during the next few days they would start getting power connections. It is a big achievement and the Chief Minister should get full credit for this tremendous work,'' remarked Mr. Bidhuri, who had even staged a dharna in front of DDA's Vikas Sadan office against this indifferent attitude.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi