The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP guns for Congress troika

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Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007
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New Delhi

BJP guns for Congress troika

Staff Reporter

“Reddy, Maken and Sheila mislead Delhiites on regularisation issue”

Union Ministers S. Jaipal Reddy, Ajay Maken and Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit

NEW DELHI: Accusing Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, his deputy Ajay Maken and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of misleading the Capital’s citizens over the issue of regularisation of unauthorised colonies, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra on Tuesday demanded immediate resignation of all three of them.

Addressing media persons a day after the Supreme Court set a 21-day deadline for sealing of all commercial premises in the Capital’s unauthorised colonies, Mr. Malhotra accused Mr. Reddy of dragging his feet over tabling a one-year moratorium Bill in Parliament that could have given relief to the people living in unauthorised colonies.

“The Bill was scheduled to be tabled on August 20 but Mr. Reddy sought more time,” said the Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Mr. Malhotra said the Bill seeking a one-year moratorium on sealing and demolitions, which the Government wanted to bring in Parliament, was also flawed. “It only talks of stopping sealing and demolition in farmhouses where there have been deviations in constructions. But it is completely silent on what should happen to unauthorised colonies, non-notified roads, Lal Dora areas, slums, street vendors, villages and houses and shops which have additional construction,” he said.

“The Bill should clearly mention that all these areas would not face sealing or demolition for the next one year,” Mr. Malhotra added. However, encroachments on Government land should not be spared, he said.

The BJP leader also accused the Centre and the Delhi Government of being casual in its approach on the issue in the Supreme Court. “If the Government does not put its case forward properly, the Court will give decisions like the one it has given now. Many people are going to be affected due to the order and the blame lies squarely with the Government,” he said.

Suggesting a possible way out of the “current crisis”, Mr. Malhotra said the Government should pass the Bill seeking one-year moratorium on sealing and demolition and then apply the amnesty scheme as recommended by a committee constituted under his chairmanship.

“We would not have hesitation in supporting such a Bill, but the Government should bring in the ‘correct Bill’ in the first place,” said the Member of Parliament from South Delhi.

Further, during the one-year moratorium, the Government should quickly work out the norms for regularisation, added Mr. Malhotra.

“The focus should be on preventing further unauthorised constructions. But by delaying the Bill, the Government is neither able to deal with the current problem nor prevent unauthorised constructions which is still going on in many areas,” he said.

Answering a query, the senior BJP leader said the party would not fight shy of tabling the Bill itself but wanted it to come from the Government. “The Government has certain prestige issues in accepting a Bill tabled by the Opposition,” said Mr. Malhotra.

He also added that the party, despite being in majority in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, was not in a position to oppose the sealing process as the entire matter was being monitored by the Supreme Court through Court Commissioners.

Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan said the Delhi Cabinet had cleared the regularisation of unauthorised colonies on February 8 but had not acted upon it so far. He said it was “low grade politics” on the part of the Congress which hurriedly notified the new Master Plan for Delhi-2021 with an eye on elections but failed to stand the scrutiny of the Court which has questioned the Master Plan.

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