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`Unauthorised colonies to be regularised soon'

Staff Reporter

Basic formalities completed, spadework is being done to give a final shape to the whole draft: Maken

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken on Sunday declared that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government would soon take a final decision on the regularisation of the 1500-odd unauthorised colonies in the Capital.

"The basic formalities for regularisation have been completed and now the spadework is being done to give a final touch to the whole draft. Things would fall in line very soon as per the commitment made by the Congress party under the leadership of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi," he added.

Addressing a delegation of villagers, residents of unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters led by Nationalist Congress Party Delhi unit president and MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri at his residence here, Mr. Maken said the Union Urban Development Ministry under the leadership of the Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy was seized of the matter and a decision is expected very soon on this issue.

This was one of the main electoral promises made in the Congress manifesto finalised by Ms. Gandhi during the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. The UPA Government was very close to fulfilling promise and all efforts are being made and the weaker sections and poor are given special consideration in this regularisation exercise, he added.

Mr. Maken said the Union Urban Development Ministry was also giving final touches to a new first ever hawker and vendor policy that would give due recognition to these sections and provide them with properly developed hawing zones for which the MCD would carry out a survey to identify such spaces.

"There cannot be any harmonious development of Delhi if the planners and those in power do not address the concerns of the that section of the population that is living in villages, JJ clusters and unauthorized colonies of the Capital," he remarked.

Earlier, Mr, Bidhuri, on the behalf of the delegation, presented a five-point charter of demands to Mr. Maken seeking to protect the identity of the villages and also the promises made to a large section of the population from time to time.

Mr. Bidhuri demanded that all that population that is living in the extended Lal Dora area of the Capital till March 2006 should not only be regularised but the house tax should also be waived off for all the villages as promised by the Congress party.

In addition to this, he said the villages should not be subjected to the condition of getting their building plans sanctioned and the building by- laws should also not apply to them.

At the same time, he demanded that all the unauthorised colonies in the Capital should be regularised without any delay in order to provide them access to better civic amenities and planning.

Similarly, Mr. Bidhuri demanded that the JJ clusters in the city should not be displaced and provision should be made for their in situ rehabilitation so that these people get better living conditions without facing displacement and the Government is also able to recover some of its land.

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