The Hindu : New Delhi News : Oversight on issue of slums has MLAs fuming

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Monday, Dec 31, 2007
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New Delhi

Oversight on issue of slums has MLAs fuming

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

“Can prove costly for the party as it braces up for the next Assembly polls”

“Will send a signal that the Congress is not serious about the issue”
“The BJP would encash this issue in the run-up to the Assembly elections”

NEW DELHI: The issue of the Delhi Government overlooking an October 5, 2007, notification by the Centre and going ahead on the basis of a 2004 policy for inviting applications and layout plans from residents of unauthorised colonies for regularisation has left a number of Congress legislators red-faced.

Due to face elections in less than a year’s time, these legislators insist that this oversight can prove very costly for the party as it braces up for the next battle of the ballot. “How are we supposed to face the people now? Not only has not a single colony been regularised in the past nine years, now when the Centre had come out with a favourable notification in this respect we are still stuck with the old and more stringent rules in the matter. This will only send a signal that the Congress is not serious about the interests of resident of 1,539 unauthorised colonies,” said a senior legislator.

Another party MLA said the manner in which people have been asked to submit various documents and apply afresh has annoyed them. Cautioning that the BJP would encash this issue in the run-up to the Assembly elections, the MLA said: “The Delhi Government could have itself engaged an agency for carrying out the work of mapping in these colonies. This would have prevented expenditure of both money and effort on the part of the people and such an approach would also have been well appreciated.”

Ignored

But for some reason the Delhi Government has completely ignored the October 2007 notification as per which liberal norms for land use had been announced. As per this notification, the Centre had made several changes to the policy announced in 2004 and come out with a very liberal policy.

Under the new plan, the yardstick for regularisation of the colonies has also been changed from the aerial survey of 2002 to the new policy announced on February 8, 2007. It had also given the go-ahead for providing basic civic amenities in all the unauthorised colonies and announced a reduction in the charges being levied for recovery of the cost of land on which the colonies had come up.

Further, the notification has spoken about giving registered residents’ welfare associations all the rights in place of the resident cooperative societies. Finally, it had also put the power of carrying out all kinds of developmental activities in these colonies in the hands of the Delhi Government and stated that this would be done through requisite amendments.

In reply to a written question, Delhi Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan had on Friday informed the Delhi Assembly that the Government had on November 4 got an advertisement published in which it has asked for six different documents from the residents’ welfare associations and committees.

‘No maps’

The Minister had also stated that Delhi Government had in 1999 asked for the maps of the unauthorised colonies but these were not provided by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Then, he said, on the basis of the guidelines for unauthorised colonies issued by the Centre in 2002 and 2004, the site plans of these colonies had been asked for and they were sent to various departments for scrutiny.

However, many legislators believe the latest exercise seeking layout plans and applications is now not needed in view of the Centre’s latest notification.

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