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Sheila discusses old slum issue with Jaipal Reddy

Staff Reporter

No mention of unauthorised colonies in the meeting `Government has drawn up plans to remove Kanak Durga cluster'

NEW DELHI: Contrary to reports in a section of the media on Wednesday, during the meeting of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit with Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy and his deputy Ajay Maken on Tuesday the issue of unauthorised colonies of Delhi was not raised at all, said sources in the Ministry.

Expressing surprise at the manner in which some people had been planting wrong information, sources in the Ministry said the meeting was called to discuss an entirely different issue and so the matter of formulating guidelines for regularisation of colonies was not even mentioned there.

The meeting, they said, had been called to discuss the issue of a 40-year-old Delhi slum, Kanak Durga, in R.K. Puram. "The Delhi Government had drawn up plans to remove this old cluster on the ground that the land belonging to the Land and Development Office was needed for making residential accommodation for Rajya Sabha MPs and staff. But as it was discovered that the Rajya Sabha refused this location, the question of pulling down the 1,000-odd dwelling units there without providing any alternate housing did not arise,'' said a Ministry official.

In fact, during the meeting Mr. Maken is learnt to have strongly taken up the cause of the dwellers.

He said as per court directions all slum dwellers who had been living in an area before 1998 should ideally be rehabilitated in situ as they mostly work in nearby areas and thus basically fulfil the role of service providers.

He said efforts would be made to give each of the families a 250 square feet flat very close to where Kanak Durga exists.

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