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`An arbitrary decision'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JULY 7 .Accusing the BJP-led Central Government for taking decisions with an eye on the Delhi Assembly elections due later this year, the Delhi Urban Development Minister, A.K. Walia, today charged the Union Urban Development Ministry with not consulting the Delhi Government on the issue of in-situ regularisation of slum clusters in the Capital despite the fact that this was primarily the suggestion of the Congress-led Government.

Terming the decision as arbitrary and lopsided, Dr. Walia said there were 800 slum clusters on land owned by Delhi Development Authority and Land and Development Office. The Central Government has taken a decision on only three clusters at Luxmi Nagar, Tehkhand Colony in Tughlakabad and one in Vasant Kunj. "Why has this facility not been extended to all these clusters and why a policy decision based on the data provided by the Delhi Government on the issue had not been taken? The policy reflects ad hocism on the part of the Ministry and smells of discrimination against a majority of the slum clusters. This farce is being enacted to woo the electorate but will not work as the people of the Capital and especially the poor have realised the evil designs of the BJP and its Central Government,'' he remarked.

The Minister said time and again the Delhi Government had been writing to the Union Urban Development Ministry on the issue but no reply had been received for almost four years now. In fact, such was the situation that no information was provided to the Delhi Government about the policy being chalked out or a pilot project being undertaken on this issue. Suddenly, one fine day, the Ministry has gone ahead and announced in-situ regularisation of three JJ clusters which was a cruel joke being played on lakhs of poor people living in these clusters.

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