The Hindu : New Delhi News : Congress and BJP blamed for the present mess

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 21, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Congress and BJP blamed for the present mess

Sujay Mehdudia

Both parties had closed doors on regularisation in the past

NEW DELHI: Though both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have joined the vocal group of political leaders and elected representatives of the people in demanding an end to the ongoing demolition drive in Delhi, official records reveal that both parties in the past had rejected proposals for regularisation of such illegal properties citing legal implications and public interest as the reason.

According to sources in the Delhi Government, such a situation would not have arisen had the Congress-led State Government as well as the NDA Government at the Centre accepted the various proposals submitted by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi regarding the Malhotra Committee Report on building by-laws and grant of amnesty. According to recommendations of the first part of the Malhotra Committee Report, residents should be allowed three and a half storeys instead of two and a half storeys and the ground floor should be allowed for commercial use. This is exactly the mixed land use policy that the Delhi Government and the Opposition have been talking about and demanding from the Union Urban Development Ministry.

However, in seems that now all these parties have forgotten that they were the ones who closed the doors on adoption of any such policy or amnesty scheme to provide relief to lakhs of affected people. "It is clear that the folly has been committed by the Delhi Government as well as the NDA Government. They failed to act in the interest of people when they should have. Both the Congress and the BJP are responsible for the present situation and now are indulging in blame game,'' remarked the Nationalist Congress Party MLA, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri.

Documents clearly reveal that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had, as per item No.3 on the agenda of the meeting held on January 17, 2000, resolved that the amnesty scheme recommended by the Malhotra Committee be forwarded to the Delhi Government for consideration and implementation. However, the Delhi Government, through its Principal Secretary (Urban Development), Suman Swaroop, wrote to the Union Urban Development Ministry on May 12, 2000, that "a copy of the scheme received had been examined by us in consultation with various agencies like Delhi Fire Service, Delhi Police and New Delhi Municipal of Council (NDMC). It has been decided that it would not be possible to accept the proposed amnesty scheme as this would be violative of the Master Plan of Delhi 2001 and the unified building by-laws''. This was the stand of the Delhi Government on the second report of the Malhotra Committee.

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